Agochora: What happens when 3 writers act, direct and write a series?

Recently, Mohammad Nazim Uddin's popular thriller 'Agochora' was adapted into a web series on Binge by another noted author of thrillers, Siddiq Ahmed. 'Agochora' casts yet another noted thriller author Ali Wahab Showhardo as the protagonist – a young sports shooter from "Puran Dhaka" who takes up a life of crime. 

One author acting under the direction of another author, who based his visual storytelling on another author's work, felt very interesting. How did this work out? 

I reached out to Siddiq and learned, through our conversation, about how Siddiq evolved into a popular thriller author and how he pursued his dream of becoming a director alongside it. His proverbial hat has both a successful author's and a director's plumes. 

'Agochora' centres around one Puran Dhakiya Samad (Showhardo) and how he gets dragged into the dark criminal underworld in the mid-80s Puran Dhaka. 

Here is a detailed documentation of our conversation from one autumn evening. 

Let's start with 'Agochora'

Against a tight budget, we only got to shoot for 12 days. Shooting at locations that'd bring the authentic Puran Dhaka look and feel, proved difficult. So we went to Manikganj and Puran Dhaka for that. 

An original puran Dhaka resident named Shagor was always onboard with us to train the artists to speak the authentic puran Dhaka dialect. But that somehow didn't land well, despite our efforts. However, the audience seems to be loving 'Agochora'.

As a published author yourself, what was it like to work on another author's work for Agochora?

The book comes in two parts – 'Dushkriti' and 'Nishkriti'. I read 'Dushkriti' and loved it because the story was deeply rooted in our Bangladeshi culture and context. Nazim himself is a "Puran Dhakaiya;" so a lot of the characters in the book were inspired by real people. 

I felt like I could adapt Agochora on the screen. Nazim also authored other great books like the 'Beg Bastard' series and the 'Rabindranath' series. Reading the first half of Dushkriti I was hooked, and requested him to allow me to do it; he listened. He really liked our storyboard.

How did the shoot roll out?

Certain platforms offered me more budget than 'Binge', but they wanted us to change the ending and didn't want Showhardo to play Samad. I didn't agree. I was adamant about not doing either. 

My biggest hurdle was choosing an ideal location, as I said before. 

Finding weapons was another great challenge. The use of realistic, prop guns is still not a thing in Bangladesh. If you look at India, they have a proper action team dedicated to this, but we don't even have a proper action director, per se. 

I initially wanted to use the Kar98 (Karabiner 98 kurz, Mauser) sniper rifle in the series but none exists in Bangladesh. So we had to go with the available M24, (Remington Arms) sniper rifle. 

Funnily enough, the M24 was launched in '87 but our storyline begins in '85. Only for the rifle's launch year, we had to rewrite the script. 

How did you get the veteran actors and the fairly news ones like Showhardo and Mishu to work together? Did they get along?

Showhardo had little to no experience of shooting for TV, he often got flustered. But the entire series pivoted on how well Samad (Showhardo) and Munna (Rakib Hossain Evon) portray their friendship. But eventually, the audience loved that trope. 

Acting opposite Fazlur Rahman Babu was nerve wracking for Showhardo. However, his authentic flustered look was used in the final output and that worked out beautifully. He synced up quickly though.

I know Mishu from my writing days, when he used to draw cartoons. Although Salekin's (Mishu) has little screen presence, his character was the catalyst in the story, driving key plot points. The character was small but we needed someone who looked the part. Mishu was faithful to his character. 

All the actors went well prepared for the shoot, therefore, I could carry out my role as the director quite well. 

How did you achieve the dual role of director/writer?

I never wanted to write; I always wanted to direct. I've served as assistant director to many well known directors. But my Amma always used to say I'd become a writer someday. I never took that seriously back then. 

I began working as a copywriter. Eventually, I got a few writing gigs. Sometime later, I got to write the script and dialogue for the 'Mujib' graphic novel. A few people discovered me and vice versa and my authorhood began. 

My book 'Dashagrib', a thriller published by Batighar publication, was selected for publication for 2019 Ekushey Boi Mela and readers loved it. Before that, I had already written 'Chaya Manab' and 'Nataraj'. 

'Dashagrib' was published in India as well and it attracted many directors looking to adapt it on the screen. Srijit Mukherjee showed interest in it. However, that didn't work out, but the book put me on the radar as a bright, big blip. It was later picked by another Kolkata producer and is now being made, awaiting release. 

I published some other thrillers through Batighar and became popular as an author. In the background I was also working on script writing for tv, dramas and movies. I have directed the drama 'Kichu Bismaraner Nadi', co-directed the Chorki original anthology 'Jaago Bahey' and then 'Agochora' finally.