Published on 02:14 PM, November 01, 2023

Left ‘Dark World’ film to preserve my dignity: Mahiya Mahi

Photo: Collected

Popular Bangladeshi actress Mahiya Mahi broke her silence regarding her decision to leave the directorial movie "Dark World" by National Award Winner Mostafizur Rahman Manik.

The film was supposed to mark Mahi's much-anticipated comeback to the silver screen after a one-year hiatus. However, she left the film's production on the first day of shooting, as confirmed by the film's director.

"Mahi returned the advance payment she had received for the film. We attempted to change her decision, but she chose to opt out of this project," stated the film's director, Mostafizur Rahman.

Photo: Collected

The actor's decision to leave the movie was reported in the media on October 13, but it was only officially confirmed today. According to her account, she explained her reason, stating, "The producer, Munna Khan, did not consider me suitable for the film, and in a way, he belittled my acting prowess with his remarks in the media. So I left to preserve my dignity."

"The project was progressing smoothly, and we completed the first day of shooting with much enthusiasm since it marked my long-awaited return to the silver screen. However, when I returned home that night, I saw a video of the producer stating that I was not his first choice."

"He only approached me because Porimoni declined to be in this film, and I have no issue with that. I have a good relationship with Porimoni. It's just that the producer should not have expressed his regrets about his actor preferences publicly," Mahi stated with anguish.

"So I decided to leave the film. However, it's not a significant issue for me, and I look forward to working on Mostafizur Rahman Manik's other projects," Mahi concluded.

In support of Mahi's remarks, director Mostafizur Rahman said, "I see no reason for the producer to speak to the media about the internal process we went through before production."

"We did try to cast Pori Moni initially, but she couldn't work with us due to scheduling issues, so we approached Mahi. It was as simple as that, but now we had to halt the shooting due to one simple mistake on the producer's part," Manik said.

"However, we have rescheduled the shooting for December and won't incur any losses due to this unfortunate incident," the director added.