Farooki’s ‘Shonibar Bikel’ to be released on Indian OTT platform Sony LIV

Acclaimed filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki’s much-anticipated film ‘Shonibar Bikel (Saturday Afternoon)’ which has been stuck in a censorship dispute for more than four years is now finally getting released for global audiences via the Indian OTT platform Sony LIV.

The director confirmed this on Wednesday in a post on his official Facebook profile.

“Saturday Afternoon is coming to an OTT (platform), finally, on November 24, on Sony LIV. The film can be watched from any other country in the world, except from Bangladesh,” Farooki stated in the post.

Although not getting its much-anticipated release in Bangladesh, local audiences got to watch the first glimpse of the film back in February this year when the trailer of the film was released.

Featuring an ensemble cast of seasoned actors including Mamunur Rashid, Zahid Hasan, Intekhab Dinar, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Iresh Zaker, and Nusrat Imrose Tisha, among others, the one-shot film was released in March in the USA and Canada, garnering critical acclaim.

Inspired by the 2016 Holey Artisan massacre in Gulshan, Farooki’s 8th directorial film ‘Saturday Afternoon’ (Shonibar Bikel), a Bangladeshi-German-Russian co-production, has been stuck and denied censorship for the past four years.

Even after getting clearance from the Bangladesh Film Censor Board on January 21 this year, the film has been suffering from not receiving government censorship clearance for its theatrical release for local audiences.