Suman Ghosh’s latest film Kabuliwala had a theatrical release in the US on February 2 in 20 cities across 14 states. Starring Mithun Chakraborty in the title role, Kabuliwala hit the Indian theatres in December 2023 during the Christmas week.

“I am glad that this is a regular release in the US and it was released in the US within a month of its India release. I can see the craze in the audience. People are going in groups. It’s a good feeling,” said Suman, who has adapted Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Kabuliwala and taken inspiration from Tapan Sinha’s 1957 cult classic.

The story revolves around the extraordinary relationship between Rahmat Ali (Mithun), an elderly Afghan immigrant selling dry fruits and shawls on the streets of Kolkata, and a seven-year-old girl, Mini (Anumegha Kahali). Suman’s adaptation is set in the 1960s, against the backdrop of the second Indo-Pakistan war, and stars Abir Chatterjee and Sohini Sarkar as Mini’s parents.

Director Suman Ghosh with child artiste Anumegha Kahali, who plays Mini, at a screening in Nandan, Kolkata

Theatrical release of a Bengali film in the US is an exception rather than a norm and Suman has taken Kabuliwala to parts of the US which have a sizable Bengali diaspora.

“I have always wondered how Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films release in the US like any other Hollywood movie and their audiences flock to the theatres to watch them too but Bangla films never have a regular release. Of course, one-off films do have screenings here — maybe in the Bay area where Bengalis live in large numbers — but those might be just one show over the weekend,” Suman told The Telegraph Online.

Stressing the commercial aspect of a Bengali film releasing in the US, Suman said such screenings would be a source of revenue for the film industry. “If you constrain the theatrical screening of Bengali films only to the West Bengal market — of course, streaming services like Hoichoi have gone beyond the Bengal market — you’re still limiting yourself. If you tap into the big diaspora market, it will be a great boost to the business of Bengali films as well,” added the National Award-winning filmmaker whose last film The Scavenger of Dreams had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2023 and is receiving critical acclaim.