Ranjan Ghosh’s Rong Beronger Kohri is receiving its due recognition and acclaim in and outside country, despite not faring well at the box office. The film premiered in the Dubai International Film Festival in December 2017 in the Market Recommended Section along with Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s S Durga.
After its theatrical release in March this year, the film was screened at the prestigious Habitat Film Festival and was received with a standing ovation from the audience in a house-full auditorium. “Habitat is a respected film festival. I got goose bumps to have been received with a standing ovation, that too in a houseful auditorium. That is the first time I thought that probably I have made a decent film,” commented Ghosh.
The film also bagged several awards in the Telangana Bengali Film Festival that screens both Bengali and Bangladeshi films. Ghosh received both the Best Film and the Best Director Awards and Arunima Ghosh was awarded the Best Actress in special jury selection. Rwitobroto Mukherjee received the Best Actor in a Supporting Role in the popular category. Kharaj Muherjee received a special mention from the jury as well.
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“It was a clean sweep. The audience cheered every time we went on to the stage to receive the awards. The jury was a very eclectic jury. There were members from the government of Telangana and from the film society as well. They personally told me that they loved the film and they are expecting to watch my next film, Aha Re. They also enquired about my first film Hrid Majharey (2014),” said the director, who felt quite reassured that with response as he doesn’t consider himself to be a media savvy person.
Next, the film got selected in the 17th Third Eye Asian Film Festival in the Indian Vista section. “Since it is a well-respected film festival, where only good films get selected without any kind of lobby, our entire team was quite motivated with the selection,” said the director.
The film has also been selected for screening in January 2019, in the Cinema of the World section at the Dhaka International Film Festival. “The festival director told me they loved the film so much that they wanted to include the film in the Asian Cinema Competition section but it could not be done due to a technical error in the film which I cannot talk about. However, it was great feeling to receive the reactions from the selection committee,” said Ghosh.
Despite the rave reviews, the low budget multi-starrer film that was shot in 10 days hardly fared well at the box office.
According to the director, to his surprise, the Kolkata audience was hardly aware of its release. “Now it is reassuring that people are watching the film in different cities and they are warming up to the film. I am sure it will generate a lot of interest when it will have a digital release,” informed the director.