Television director Kachi Khondoker is trading the small screen for the cinema — and he has chosen a familiar collaborator for his first feature. Khondoker announced this week that his debut film, "My Dear Football", will star popular actor Mosharraf Karim and centre on the feverish local football culture of Bangladesh's towns and districts.
Khondoker, who grew up outside the capital and built his reputation as a director of acclaimed television plays, says the film will capture the raw excitement and communal obsession that surrounds grassroots football.
"I've tried to portray the mania for football in the districts," he told The Daily Star. "Shooting should begin in June next year — I deliberately chose June to avoid the rains."
The director said his long creative partnership with Mosharraf Karim made the casting an easy decision. "He has performed in many of the television projects I've directed. We understand each other. I once worked with him on a football project for television that attracted a lot of attention," Khondoker recalled. "This script has several layers, and I cannot imagine making it without him. The story is born of a deep love for football."
Khondoker declined to name the rest of the cast, promising a "surprise" reveal soon. He said the film will explore more than the sport: it will be about community, aspiration and the personal costs and rewards of devotion to a game that binds towns together.