<\/a>Director Ashraf Shishir\u2019s debut film Gariwala has won eight international awards after having been screened at 37 film festivals in 16 countries. The latest feather in his cap was the Best Film Award that he won at the 7th Picnic Film Festival in Spain recently. In an interview with New Age, the director talked about the success of the film and how it came into being. \u2018Gariwala\u2019s continued success proves that our films also have a global currency and can compete with the films of any country,\u2019 said Shishir, ascribing the film\u2019s success to the universal issues dealt with in the film. \u2018The love and struggle of a mother and her children is the central theme of the film. This is a kind of theme that has a universal appeal regardless of the country where it\u2019s shown. And this is why the film was accepted globally,\u2019 said Shishir. Gariwala, with a run-time of 86 minutes, features a mother and her two sons whose fight against poverty sets in motion events that would change their life forever.
\nEarlier, the film received \u2018Narrative Feature, Honourable Mention Award\u2019 at the 7th Trenton Film Festival, USA. It also won a screenplay award at the North Carolina Film Festival in the USA. Gariwala also bagged the best supporting actor award and the best child artiste award at the carnival.
\n\u2018I actually made Gariwala as a short film but later converted it into a feature-length film. Though I received a government grant for the short, the amount was not enough to handle the cost of conversion and so I had to use my personal savings to complete the project,\u2019 said Shishir.
\nThe director also expounded on the challenges he faced to arrange for its commercial release. \u2018The distributors and owners of cinemas did not agree to show the film as it was not a typical Dahllywood commercial film. I tried but couldn\u2019t change their mind in favour of a release,\u2019 he said.
\n\u2018So I decided not to negotiate any further and sent it to foreign festivals, who warmly accepted it. However, plans are afoot to release the film in Bangladesh within a few months.\u2019
\nShishir is going ahead with a plan for his next project, a feature film named Amra Ekti Cinema Banabo. In this regard, he said, \u2018I am not going to disclose details of the film at this moment. But I hope it will also be as loved as its predecessor.\u2019<\/p>\n

-With New Age<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Ashraf Shishir\u2019s debut film Gariwala has won eight international awards after having been screened at 37 film festivals in 16 countries. The latest feather in his cap was the Best Film Award that he won at the 7th Picnic Film Festival in Spain recently. In an interview with New Age, the director talked about … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[12396,662,12394,12395,12397],"yoast_head":"\n