Proud of my entire team:

Vicky Zahed

Vicky Zahed's OTT debut Redrum witnessed him working yet again with Mehazabien Chowdhury, as they ventured together for a 'whodunit' story that kept the audience on the edge of their seats.

Redrum dominated the popular category at Blender's Choice-The Daily Star OTT & Digital Content Awards 2022. The popular director clinched the Best Director award in film for his endearing project on Chorki. The web-film won five awards including the Best Film at the coveted event.

"Both Mehazabien and I wanted to start our OTT journey with something that was different. We thought Redrum had the perfect story to surprise the audience. We really worked hard on this project and thus when we are finally getting recognised for our effort this really made us feel like our hard work has finally paid off," said Vicky Zahed. "The entire team, including Afran Nisho, Sallha Khanam Nadia and Manoj Pramanik did a wonderful job."

This award started at the right time: Syed Shawki

Syed Ahmed Shawki won the Best Director award for the second time, this time for his landmark web-series Karagar. Elated with the win, the director expressed his gratitude towards the audience and critics.

"It is overwhelming that for the second time Film Syndicate received the highest number of nominations and also the highest number of awards," said the director.

The director also emphasised on the new medium that has already shown its potential not just nationally, but internationally as well. "The medium is still growing, and interestingly, this award has begun its journey at the very right time, and this acknowledgement will definitely help the aspiring filmmakers to come forward and work even harder."

Shawki shared that he has keenly observed that the young talents look forward for such recognition. "See, we don't have any acclaimed school for filmmaking, those who work in the technical sides learn on their own effort and interest. "When these young talents receive such honour, they can proudly tell their family that they have done something commendable."

This award is inspiring: Mohammad Touqir Islam

Shaaticup won two awards this edition of The Blender's Choice-The Daily Star OTT and Digital Content Awards. Both awards are from the critic category, one is the best director award bagged by Mohammad Touqir Islam and the another as the best content which was taken by the platform Chorki.

"Awards are always inspiring and it increases the sense of responsibility into another extent." Looking back to the memory of working in the project, Touqir expressed his heartfelt gratitude to the platform Chorki. "Such stories should be told more, as it represents the real picture of the localities." Other than the narrative itself, the artistes are also locals of Rajshahi.

"From initial communication till screening, the journey with Chorki has been amazing and they were very supportive," shared the director.

The project Shaaticup delves into a dark and intense tale of the remote localities in Rajshahi, dealing with drugs and the consequence of the drug-lord in this crime drama.

How did your friends and family react to such win? "They were naturally very happy and excited with the win." Touqir is working in another project focusing on the Rajshahi localities, this time telling a different narrative. The project is in the post production stage.

Nothing could have made me happier:

Nuhash Humayun

Nuhash Humayun disrupted the OTT space when he released Pett Kata Shaw. Based on Bangla folklore, the horror series featured the likes of Chanchal Chowdhury, Afzal Hossain, Shohel Mondol and Pritom Hasan, among others. Pett Kata Shaw won the People's Choice Award at the event. Unfortunately, Nuhash couldn't attend the programme. "I was on my way to London for the UK premiere of Pett Kata Shaw when I found out we won the Daily Star OTT People's Choice Award. To receive this kind of love both home and abroad is such an incredible honour. We won the final award of the night, and my mother was there in person to receive it on my behalf - nothing could've made me happier," he said. Going forward, the director looks to bring more game-changing projects on-screen.

Photos: Checkmate Events/STAR