People did 'Hawa' promotions for us: Chanchal Chowdhury

Mejbaur Rahman Sumon's debut directorial film "Hawa", which stars Chanchal Chowdhury, hits theatres today. The two-time National Film Award-winning actor portrays the role of Chan Majhi, the leader of a group of fishermen—who are stuck on a fishing trawler for fifteen days.

Starting from its announcement, the film has been successful in grabbing people's attention. Even the first song from the film, "Shada Shada Kala Kala", took social media by storm, becoming an instant sensation all over the country. The Daily Star caught up with Chanchal to learn more about "Hawa" and his plans for watching the film.

The promotion campaign for "Hawa" has created a stir amongst the general people. What do you think made this campaign so successful?

A good promotional campaign is one of the key factors behind a film's success. For "Hawa", the majority of the promotions were done by the general people. The teaser, trailer and the songs released so far, seem to have genuinely captivated the audience. Especially the song, "Shada Shada Kala Kala", composed and written by Hashim Mahmud, has been our trump card. Honestly speaking, I have not seen this kind of hype around a movie in the last two decades. 

Advance tickets, for the next seven days of the film have already been sold out.

I want to credit the entire team for their efforts to make this project a success. Interestingly, the crew themselves struggled to get tickets to the first show. Thankfully, we were eventually able to manage the tickets.

'Shada Shada Kala Kala' immediately became a hit after the song's release. What, in your opinion, is the real magic behind the song's success?

Looking back, if we look back at hit tracks like "Nithua Pathare", "Bokul Phul", and "Bazi", we can see that all of them are inspired from Bengali folk songs. So, the real magic behind the song, in my opinion, is our own cultural heritage and ingenuity.

The team has been working on the movie since 2019. Now, in 2022, the movie is finally being released. Did you at any point, in the four years, feel disheartened that the movie's release took this long?

The release of the film was postponed multiple times. As I was very excited about this project, I was frustrated seeing the release being postponed. However, I think the wait has been worth it.

Why should people go to watch "Hawa"?

If the audience liked anything about "Hawa", be it the trailer or the song, they should definitely go and watch the movie. See, whether the film is good or bad, it should be decided by the people after they experience it for themselves. If they like it, they will recommend others to watch it. If they don't like it, they can provide us with constructive criticism. We cannot provide any guarantees on whether everyone will enjoy "Hawa", because art is objective and people have different tastes.

The film has garnered a lot of attention, even before its release. Did you, at any point, feel nervous about the film?

I do not take on any project until and unless I am confident about it. That is why I have only worked on seven films in my entire career. Even for my next film, I will wait until I am offered a script that has the same potential as that of "Hawa".