DHAKA, August 13, 2026 — Bangladeshi filmmaker Piplu R Khan’s Jaya Aar Sharmin has been officially selected for the 5th World Film Festival Kolkata, which will take place at Nandan in Kolkata from September 8 to 13.
Producer Abu Shahed Emon of Golpo Rajjo Films confirmed the selection to Times of Bangladesh following the announcement of this year’s official lineup by the Eastern Region of the Federation of Film Societies of India.
Emon said the team was delighted that the film would be screened for audiences at Nandan.
The 86-minute Bengali-language film, completed and released in 2025, is among 19 titles selected for the festival’s feature-film competition.
It will compete for the Bimal Roy Golden Award for Best Feature Film and the Bimal Roy Silver Award for the second-best feature.
Bangladesh has two films in the feature competition.
The other is Nurul Alam Atique’s People of the Garden – Manusher Bagan, an 85-minute Bengali film released in 2021.
The international lineup also features films from Portugal, Venezuela, Brazil, Costa Rica, Iran, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Uzbekistan, among other countries.
Jaya Aar Sharmin follows two women from different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves sharing the same home during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Jaya is an actress, while Sharmin works in her household.
Cut off from the outside world, the two gradually develop an unexpected closeness as they navigate the routines and uncertainties of confined life.
As the isolation continues, however, emotional pressure and the unequal nature of their relationship begin to test the fragile bond between them.
Jaya Ahsan plays Jaya, while theatre actor Mohsina Akhter portrays Sharmin. Tanjim Saiyara Totini makes a guest appearance.
Piplu R Khan co-wrote the story, screenplay and dialogue with Nusrat Islam Mati.
The film has already received recognition for both its direction and performances.
Piplu R Khan won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Director in the feature-film category at the Meril–Prothom Alo Awards 2025.
Mohsina Akhter was also honoured with the Best Breakthrough Performance (Film) award at the Global Star Award 2025, Season 3, for her portrayal of Sharmin. The ceremony was held at Dhaka Regency on 25 July, 2026.
The film was shot in 2020 with a small crew in a quiet part of Dhaka’s Banani area. Recorded with live sound and without dubbing, its production approach adds to the intimate and enclosed nature of the drama.
After five years in the making, Jaya Aar Sharmin was theatrically released in Bangladesh on May 16, 2025. It later premiered on the streaming platform Chorki on September 25, 2025.
The film was produced by Abu Shahed Emon, Jaya Ahsan and Piplu R Khan through Emon’s Golpo Rajjo Films, Ahsan’s C Te Cinema and Khan’s Applebox Films.
Bangladesh will also be represented in the festival’s documentary section by Makbul Chowdhury’s Mamun – In Praise of Shadows, a 60-minute Bengali production from Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.
Alongside the Bimal Roy Golden and Silver Awards for feature films, the festival will present the Harisadhan Dasgupta Golden and Silver Awards for documentaries and the Chidananda Dasgupta Golden and Silver Awards for short fiction.
The programme will also feature a retrospective of German filmmaker Alexander Kluge.
The festival will run daily from noon to 8pm at Nandan from 8 to 13 September.
