Eminent film producer Habibur Rahman Khan, whose latest venture is the award-winning India-Bangladesh film Shankhachil, believes that opening up doors for international films help improve quality of movies.

“Good films are not being made. So, the cinema halls are struggling,” Khan said while discussing Shankhachil. “If there is a joint venture films, audience will go back to the theatres. This will gradually lead to making of films based on our and their stories.”

“I want to see an English film or a Bangladeshi movie or a Hindi or an Indian Bangla film at movie theatres. If my film is good, I will send it there,” said Khan, who has been producing timeless classics since 1972 starting with Titas Ekti Nodir Naam.

Khan has jointly produced Shankhachil with Prosenjit Chatterjee, Faridur Reza Sagar and Mou Ray Chowdhury.

The movie is set to be released both in Bangladesh and West Bengal on Bangla new year Pahela Baishakh (April 14).

Directed by noted West Bengal director Goutam Ghose, the film has already bagged India’s National Film Award for best feature film in Bangla centres around cross border migration in Bengal.

The focal characters of the film include West Bengal’s Prasenjit Chatterjee and Bangladesh’s Kusum Sikder and Shajbati.

The screenplay was written by Goutam Ghose and Sayantani Putatunda.

Khan and his grand daughter Shajbati in this interview with The Daily Star talk about this film and other things.