Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, I mean it's it's grown tremendously.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Like I said, this is our third year, and every year,
every year we've grown. And this year we'll be at the.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Prestigious Angelica Film Festival Angelica Theater in Manhattan, which is
a landmark, and this is it's where the Trabacca Film
Festival as hell. So I don't know, to be honest,
I'm just shock every time I think about it.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You're listening to Ruckus Avenue Radio, available now on the
free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
So welcome to Ruckus Avenue Radio and my show Bollywood
to Hollywood. I am your host, Camar, and I have
a special guest on as well, which actually has a
very similar name to mine, but I will pronounce it
so that everyone knows about it.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
His name is com Rule Khan Come Rull Khan, goes by.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Cam and he is a by day, he works in finance,
but he's a very passionate about film and TV. In fact,
he's got a film festival coming up for a Bangladeshi
Film Festival based in New York. But he's also a
member of Bengali's of New York. So welcome com Rale
or Cam to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm just curious. Did
you ever have pressure to sort of hypenate your name
like I did?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, I mean it's k KK Cam all sorts of things, right,
But you know, I mean, you know, when I grew
up in London, obviously people call me all sorts of names,
so I just kind of worked with the flow as
long as it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I'm a nineties kid, so you know, in the
nineties there was this rapper named Cameron and he used
to go by Cam, So my friends started calling me Cam,
so that's where that came from.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But mere excited to be here, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, I mean they're very excited to have you on
as well.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And then you know, the film festival thing is very interesting, right,
and as we see like a trend to more and
more film festivals, quality film festival getting very specific with
certain ethnicities. I think it's so cool because it gives
the opportunity for filmmakers to come in and basically.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
Be part of this.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And Ruckus Avenue Radio is, you know, his largest online
radio station globally and part of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
So we want to amplify this and we want.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
To celebrate some of the South Asian events and basically
creating more awareness around this film festival. So tell me, Carmroll,
you obviously work in you know during the day, you
obviously this.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
How do you fit all of this stuff in? And
what brings you this? What to become so passionate about,
you know, a film festival like this?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean it's it's grown tremendously. Like I said,
this is our third year, and every every year we've grown.
And this year we'll be at the prestigious Angelica Film
Festival Angelica Theater in Manhattan, which is a landmark, and
this is it's where the Tribecca Film Festival as hell.
So I don't know, to be honest, I'm just shocked
(03:15):
every time I think about it. I'm actually I've never
really been into I've never been sort of like a
film common stour. I mean, I like watching movies. But
it's just crazy how things have happened. I actually I started.
I was working in finance and me and a friend
wanted to highlight the stories of these Bengali street vendors
(03:37):
that are all throughout New York. So if you ever
are in New York, you'll see street carts that sell
hellout food. Most of them are Bengali, so we've always
we always were just interested in hearing their stories. So
we made a little small documentary eighteen minutes just interviewing
them and taught and following them around. And then when
we finished, we got this Australian production company to make
(03:59):
the documentary and we were just like, how do we
get this out? So we've just decided to start our
own festival and an Instagram page, and the Instagram page
kind of took off and we have over thirty five
thousand followers on this Instagram and you know, a lot
more everywhere else. And so that's how the Film for
Films Festival could have started. And the first year and
(04:20):
then I also just you know, just ask people that
ran festival how they did it. They told me about
film Freeway and other ways to get other filmmakers and
find other filmmakers. And we were excited we found all
these other Bengali filmmakers that we're doing, you know, really
interesting things. And the first year we had three films,
the second year we had six films, and I mean
(04:43):
this year we're probably going to have a lot more
than that. So it's just like I said, doubled every
year and double the size every year as well. But yeah,
I'm really not even a film guy. I just like
watching movies and sort of like happened by accident.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I mean it's a great story, right to be able
to like and about the street carts as well, like
in the hall courts that are out there in New
York too. I mean who knew that they were mostly Bengalis.
I mean people coming there, they obviously celebrate that. First
thing they want to do is go check out the
hall court. And it's street food, right, I mean people,
you know, whether it's tacos or other things, people will
enjoy it. And especially if it's good, and especially in
somewhere like a New York where you know the city
(05:19):
never sleeps, it's a great place to have that.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I'm curious, like.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
For your festival, you're going to have sort of street
carts stuff going on, and what people talk about festivals,
and they talk.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
About the food too, And I know it's in a
great venue.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It isn't a great vetting. That's a really good question.
You know. I wanted to do some sort of food.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But unfortunately the theater is really strict with outside food,
so it didn't work out. But we are having an
after party at a really cool spot in Brooklyn and
it's not great food, but it's They have really good
food called a Monkey King, also owned by Bengalis, but
it's not a Bengali food. It's sort of like fusion Bengali.
So I'm excited about that. So we do have some
(05:57):
food incorporated in the after party, but not during, not during,
So obviously it'd be great if you're there.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
That's excellent, I mean, and I get it. And it's
such a great venue. We need to talk about that, right,
It's all there in East Village, is that right?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So it's Angelica and this is where the Tobacco con
Festival is, like I said. And the theater itself, it's
the largest theater. It's the largest theater at the Angelica,
and I've seen many articles. It's actually voted one of
the best theater to in the country. It just looks
regal if you if you google it, you'll see the big,
the large theater at the Angelica is beautiful. Those like
(06:33):
four hundred people sounds amazing. Yeah, Like I'm.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Shocked that we are doing an event there, But yeah, how.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Did you pull that off?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah? So we have the demand.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Last year we heard we last year we were we
were in the smaller theater at the Angelica and we
I mean we literally have to turn a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Away and that was about one hundred and sixty people.
So we just knew, we knew we could fill it.
So we could. We decided to go after it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And obviously it's more expensive, but I know we'll we'll
do fine.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And like I said, there's a demand.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
People want to watch movies but also Bengali's and thess
not just.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Bengalis by the way, I think we have We have
a lot of like.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
They see people and nan this is coming to the
festivals and they want to support. I mean, I have
a lot of friends that you know, they have non
you know, their sy spouses and girlfriends and boyfriends and
they actually want to show their nan this is you know,
boyfriends and spouses that like, look like this Bengali is
doing cool stuff, right, like let's go check it out,
(07:39):
you know.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Absolutely, And I think that that's something to celebrate too,
and what a great venue to do it in.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
And also there's a demand, which is which is the
key thing.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I think the message here like there's a demand out there,
you're going to fill that that theater and of course
if it sells tickets doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
You should have a great venue.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
I think the other thing I wanted to ask you
because for the audience listening in. I mean, I just
went to what was one of the Pakistani South the
Asian Film Festival, but we had films and it was
in Houston, and.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
It was interesting to see that there were films from.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Kazakhstan, there were films from Europe, there were films from everywhere.
Does is there a criteria for somebody who's thinking, I
really want to submit to the Bengali Film Festival, but
I just don't. You know, I'm not Bengali, but maybe
you know my producer's Bengali, or there's cast members who
are Bengali.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
What element is there? Because I know that the other festival,
of the Pakistani film festivals like as long as there
is some verbiage around or there's some element of Pakistani
within that film, it doesn't matter if it's mostly Caucasian
or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So this is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Probably good criteria. So I just wanted to see what
your thoughts were there.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, absolutely, So it doesn't we don't have a strict
criteria as long as there's against someone that's prominent in
the cast that is Bengali or the producer, writer, director,
or there's a topic.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That released the so uh that that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We've had We've had directors that are obviously Caucasian and
one of the lead actors of Bengali we had.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
A film like that. So yeah, there's no strict criter
here as long as there's something.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
We even had another film, we had a film by
a non Bengali that touched on the revolutionary war in Bangladesh.
We've yeah, I mean, yeah, all sorts of all sorts
of films as long as there's some elements to to Bengali.
And just so some of the people you know, may
be confused about Bengali.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I actually was confused myself.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So just so people on the understands of Bengali is
is an ethnicity, and there's Bengalis that live in Bangladesh,
which is a country you know, uh east of India,
but there's also a lot of Bengalis in India, so
people can be Bengali.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I'm sure I'd come in and you know this this
is for the audiences. There's a Bengalis that are also
in India, Bengali Indians.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
There's actually like hundreds of millions of Bengalis in India,
and there's actually Bengalis in in Pakistan as well.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There's and there's Bengali's all over the world. The dispur
is really uh large.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And I even through through the Bengalis of New York
this organization, I've really come to realize how large the
day sparg community.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Is and really supportive I've met.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Now I know people Bengali is literally in probably like
almost every every country now just through this network that
I've gotten access.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To through through through Boney been amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
That's amazing, and that's good for everyone to know as well.
And then that is a very good point. We're gonna
take a quick break for for now com and just
to come back for a second.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Gonna Honey, you're listening to ruck Us Avenue Radio.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
So welcome back everyone.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Just to let you know, I am speaking to gone
Ral Khan, who is the festival founder for the Bengali
Film Festival taking place in New York this summer, and
he's sharing with us how he formed this festival.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
How he's talking a.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Little bit more about the diaspora of Bengalis who are
from so many different parts of the world as well.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
So Cam we were talking.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
About the fact that you know, there's Bengalis everywhere in
the world, and you know they have created and especially
New York seems to be you know, the Bengalis of
New York, you know, very cohesive. But I mean in India,
there's so many Bengalis as well, right, I mean people
forget that sometimes, right Are they situated in particularly past,
(11:51):
Is there a certain sort of culture or you know,
type of specific you know, cuisine and stuff like that
we should probably people who don't know much about the
Bengali's you know, uh, background, et cetera, probably be learned
from that.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well. So I'm definitely not a cuisine expert.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But you know one thing that and you probably know this,
is that most of the curry houses in London are
owned by Bengalis.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the reason that they call them Indian restaurants or
curry houses back in the day Indian curry houses was
because at that time Bangladesh, Bangladesh was a part of India,
so that whole region was India, so they just called
it Indian restaurants.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And even now they you know, they're Bangladeshi.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
A lot of them are bad She owned, but they
don't change it to Bamada She restaurant or Bengali restaurant
because Indian obviously Indian food would uh is more is
a better business model than Bengali food. So but it's
obviously so curry's are you know, prominent.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
There's different types of curry, and.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
There's probably different, you know, differences in the different regions
of curri's. Uh So, I'm sure Bawmadeshi curry and West
Bengali curry wesh Bungali is the part of India where
Bungali's lived there, it's probably slightly different.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But but yeah, I mean, you know, curry.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Is obviously big in bad That's there's like a stereotype
of bandad this these that that we love fits I
guess because we have a lot of an access to see.
I particularly don't love fish, but I guess I guess
that's the stereotype.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Maybe it's probably true. But yeah, obviously, so curry is
a big piece, and I actually really love the curry
houses in in London.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't know how you feel, Kama, And I'm curious
what you thought about how you call the curry curry
places in Yeah, in in the West Coast, in the
West Coaste compared to London.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Personally, I love it.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
I love the food in London anyway in general, but
especially the South Asian cuisine and all the restaurants in general.
I mean, I'm a big fan of there's so much competition.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
That you can't you can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
How does it compare to the West Coast in the US.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Oh, I would say it's nothing in comparison. Honestly, I
feel like you get the West Coast doesn't touch at
what wave is available in London and places like that.
So you really, you know, it's very spreading, it's very
spread out. London's concentrated, right, so there's a lot of
opportunity you can find. You can turn a corner and
you find a curry house. As you said, you know, so, yeah,
I'm familiar with all that. I just was thinking about
from the perspective of, you know, what people just learning
(14:26):
about more about the the you know, the culture and
the film festival with a great opportunity to highlight some
of those things.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
But let's switch gears for a second. Let's talk about
the film festival itself, right, So.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
What can people expect and what you know are you
kind of ideally looking for. So they've signed up for
you know, they've submitted the films and obviously you've got
films that are gon be announced soon. What what's the
what you said, is it a two day festival? Is
it a you know, one day festival?
Speaker 5 (14:56):
What does it look like?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, So we've this year it's a it's a it's
one day festival, starts about six and is about eleven.
So but next year I actually hope to again doubling
every year. I hope to have a multi day festival.
So this year's just the one day festival. And what
can people expect? So, you know, Bengalis that are filmmakers,
obviously they they they're making films that that are about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Topics that are important to them.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So now we're seeing a lot of submissions from members
of the LGBT community, for example, you know, things that
they are you know, parting difficulty in facing their families
with topics that they're following difficulty. So we're seeing a
lot of that, you know, we're seeing a lot of
themes that relate to you know, topics that they struggle with,
(15:44):
like you know, you know, careers that their families are
not happy about. You know, for example, we've got one
where it's someone is a you know, dancer, or is
there someone that else is a uh.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You know, a graphic artist. You know, Traditionally those are
not feels that Banallei parents are happy with. So there's
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Like that where people are making films and documentaries and
about things that they're going through and it's a lot
of that. And yeah, and there's a lot of personal stories.
I've seen a lot of people's personal stories about their
upbringing and you know in New York and inner cities,
(16:28):
not just in New York and other parts of the countries.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Just interesting and moving stories.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
That's awesome. I mean, do you feel like and there
is how many shorts are we.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Looking at versus like features in this in the film festival?
Then it's only a day long, So I'm just curious
from that perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, it's been it's been hard to say no to
features because you know, one feature means that you know,
we we wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Room for that many films.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So we're trying to say not to features and mostly
focusing on films max around you know, thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So no features.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
But like I said, eventually that would be the goal
because we've had to say no to some really good,
you know, feature films.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I mean it's it's hard to sort of put everything
in one day, so it's really short, right, We're going
to be focused on mostly yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, And not only that, we've also had a lot
of interest for musicians to show their like music videos
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That's been an interesting one.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, they see musicians wanting us to show their music
and we may do that maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And the one thing I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Because of this was the New York and the festival
in general, I've met someone people all over the world,
and I've gotten interest for from people to take it
on the road.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I don't know if you follow what's going on in Brondadish,
but there's a there's a you know, giant, there's a
sort of a mini revolution going on in Bahnladash and
so that they're calling a BD two point zero, and
there's a lot there's a there's a demand for just
like entertainment and just celebrating the culture and things like that.
And so I'm actually speaking to some folks about doing
(18:10):
affectival Invomladesh, which was you know, which would This is
going to be massive because I have the experience in
doing it here, so that you know, people that actually
are in a position to bring into Balmades.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I'm really excited about that as well.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Actually, that reminds me. She connected with somebody who I
did PBS show for.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
He's actually lives in Dhaka and she does a lot
of work here in La as well, and actually booked
me for a voice over for He's married to Bangladesh.
She's a Caucasian guy and great guy to connect with
as well, so he could probably help you with stuff
on the ground there in Daka as well.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's been a lot of this just like people like you,
people like that are like you know that that have
been just introducing to people that are just passionate. And
I think, I think, going back to what I like
how I started, I think because it's a passion project
and I'm not you know, I think people sense like
nobody on my team myself, we're not trying to make
the millionaires from this. We're not you know, it's not
(19:08):
our day job. We're really it's a passion project. And
I think people sense that and want to support.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
You're listening to ruck Us Avenue Radio Avenue available now
on the free iHeart Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
I mean, look, I'll give you another example. One of
the South Asian Film Festival, the one just went to.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I mean, I asked everybody, you know, so you know,
we were talking about what they do, what else they do?
These are filmmakers, invested their own money or they raised money,
whatever it was. But they also have a day job.
So one was a doctor for example, one was a
in tech. And and I say, I encourage those people. I said, listen,
it's fine, And that's what I love is because there's
obviously a passion around this, right And maybe they didn't
(20:08):
know initially that that's what they're really passionate and maybe
this rearing in that direction. But the connections you made
the network opportunity for me. I mean again, as I mentioned,
like we're sharing today, we have an opportunity to create
as well to to network so well with other South Asians, Bengali,
Indian and Pakistani or whatnot. Doesn't really matter that the
point is that we're all singularly focused. You mentioned music,
(20:31):
and I ended up performing twice on in the film Face.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I saw one of your videos. Wow you're you're in
mouth size how it's amazing.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Well, thank you, thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
And so but it was great to an opportunity to
showcase my song, right, to be able to sing you know,
a Bollywood song or and also you know, do something
around you know, my own song, which is going to
be released actually on this weekend. So just things like that,
and the other people had the opportunity to do that
or if they have a music video, like you said,
why not, right, And so that creates especially with shorts,
(21:01):
it creates an opportunity to to create some kind of
a an event and fun event right at the end
of the shorts or whatnot.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
So this entertainment value.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
But I think all of those things, you know, to
celebrate the culture, the fusion that exists, especially in the
New York culture is great.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
So how do you feel about kind of you know,
films yourself? I mean, were you an actor? You're filmmaker?
How did this you know? What's your passion there?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
No, I'm definitely not an actor. I have zero acting talent.
Like I said, it was just a passion project. I mean,
I love I do love movies. I mean I'm a
big you know, Parentino fan, and you know I have
I have like five or six movies that I watch
every year. So I'm kind of stuck in my ways
(21:51):
in a little bit. But you know, and so I
had probably a lot of movies from the early two
thousands and nineties sort of like that's my my permanent
years in college.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And but no, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Definitely I'm a movie I love movies, but definitely zero
acting or directing talent.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's the all we need, right, we just need passion
and watch movies and whatnot, because that's exactly we need.
So we need something like you know, you came on
there as well, right, I mean, I think and we've
got we've got to mention our good friends to hell
connected us in the first place, right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, he's he's actually a judge. He's a judge in
our festival. Yeah, he's doing he's been he's been great.
He's been also connecting me to a lot of people.
But I'll say, you know, the other thing I'll say is, uh,
a lot of what I do with the festival and
Butal's of New York. It's uh, project management, right, It's
(22:47):
just managing people and managing projects. And I feel like
my day job has helped a lot with that, just
working in finance. So it's interesting, like I definitely borrowed
some of what I do in my day job to
get a lot of this going. And in a way,
it's actually a lot more difficult because most of the
folks on my team are volunteers, you know, just you know,
(23:08):
they get paid sometimes on projects, but it's mostly volunteer work.
So it's you know, getting these people to be motivated
and work on a lot of this stuff really for
free is really difficult, right, getting them continued to be
motivated as opposed to like my day job.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Obviously, you know I pay, you know, I pay, I
pay the people on my teams. It's not always a
lot more difficult, but it's definitely a lot more fulfilling
as well.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
That's fantastic, And I think I'm getting these festivals and
seeing that there's so many volunteers, some people people spending
their own money right to go in and the filmmakers
that were invested in traveling around the globe or just
traveling in the US to go in and stay at
hotels talk about their film. I mean that's a from
even from a filmmaker perspective, and I look at it,
it's it's an investment. But you're doing it because you
(23:53):
love it, and you're doing it because you want to
connect with others and you want to make more films.
And that's the thing that I think is pretty exciting, right,
So for you doing that, So thanks for putting it
out there, you know, and creating something like this, which
is awesome for people listening. And when is the festival,
by the way, exactly the date that they can they
can come into New York and you know what time
(24:14):
does it start? And you said and at eleven is
then you just mentioned there's an after party as well,
So that's kind of fun create people to come over there.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
And how many people do you expect this year?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So the festival is July nineteenth at the Villages by
Angelica in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and I'm sorry,
the Village in Manhattan and it will start six to
eleven and then there's an after party at the Monkey
King in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a really hot spot and
we so the theater holds three hundred and sixty five people,
(24:48):
so that's what we expect will be cool.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We'll be at capacity for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
But you know, like I said, there's been interest in
us because we've had to turn people away. Maybe we'll
do maybe not annually, maybe we made we were thinking
about maybe doing a bi annual one because it's you know,
the thing.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Is, it's the summer.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It's a lot of people, there's a lot going on,
and also a lot of people go away for the summer.
So we're actually thinking about maybe doing a midwinter one
as well. So, you know, so the web, the socials are.
The socials are Bengalis of New York on Instagram and
Bungali Film Comfortable Bungalai Films on Instagram as well. There
are our main sort of places to get information.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
And you mentioned things like, you know, this can't be
done without sponsors, right, So if somebody wants to be
a sponsor of the film or wants to be involved
in some way, who's listening in, where could they go about,
how would they reach you to to to do that
and if there are any levels, et cetera. Is it on
a website?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, I would say reach out to us about the
levels is contact Bengalees of New York dot com or
or our instagram that's a great place too, So Bungalei's
of New York. That's our Instagram handle, and we have
different levels and we will we can obviously Taylor the
sponsor to various levels, and we're allowing you know, some of.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
The sponsors, they're gonna have a table.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
One of our sponsors are going to have an actual
table at the venue. It's a really large venue, so
they have a whole separate place for venue for sponsors,
and we have a we're doing a red carpet, so
you'll see if you go on our instagram, you'll see
the pictures from our red carpet last year with the
banners in the back.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
It was it was amazing. We got a lot of
traffic from those pictures.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But yeah, if anyone is interested in sponsoring, I'd love
to talk to you. Yeah, they'll just reach out to
reach out to a we so shoulder or email yea and.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Hopefully some pressed too write for those people out there
coming and that'll be awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
We're not great at that, to be honest with you
come on like we're just not great at going out
and getting you know, I think it's maybe like a
South Asian they see thing like we're just not like
we do these things that we really haven't gone out
and try to get pressed for any of it. Like
we've gotten some just by just cooling, but we haven't
done a lot of that. And maybe it's a part
(27:03):
of me just going maybe doing more work around.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
You know, pr but but we haven't. We haven't and
a lot of it's been just just happened. But we
need to do a better job on that because because
we need to, like, you.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Know, we're enjoying it and there's a lot of work
and we're uh, you know, gaming momentum, but we need
to do a better job of telling.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
People absolutely, Look, I'm excited for this particular festival, and
I know a lot of people are as well.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Hopefully there's going to be.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
More of this out there that you know, I'm going
to sort of by closing or ask you about what
your favorite films are if you were to highlight and
know it's a tough question, but you know, something you've
seen or a lot of the festivals, maybe the last
couple of years rather than you know, give me a
sort of a general Hollywood film, but something that you've
kind of inspires you, that you've seen in the festivals
(27:55):
over the last couple of years, that you've been like,
oh my gosh, you know, something like this must be showcased.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So one of the films we showed last year we
I'll be honest with you, I'm not a big fan
of of uh. They call it Dollywood, which is sort
of the Dhaka Bollywood, which is the Valuywood the film industry.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I'm not a fan of their films.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I think their tend to be cheesy and production quality
is not great. But one of the films that we
showed last year was called Mashari m O s h
a r y I and it was it was actually
a horror film by a filmmaker uh.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And he's actually the son of a famous vamad she writer.
His name is who own and and.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It's on YouTube actually now it's called Masherie and it's
and and And I also never get scared. I find
scary movies to be cheesy. I never really get scared.
But this this.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Film scared me.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And it's production He was that high and the writing
was that goods Commashari and was by a Bandaditi filmmaker,
all the director, So I was really impressed.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That really impressed me. So and we showed that last
year and that same director.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
He also committed another film this year, so super excited
to show his film again. And so I was really
really excited about that because I was like, Wow, this
is about all the filmmaker making this amazing film that
I could I could see, you know, going to the
Oscars and doing really.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Well, Yeah, I know, that's amazing, like you know, to
do highlighting a film that you know, he just resonated
with you, which is surprising. Sometimes you know what can
and what can't you know, and that's awesome. Look, I
clearly you've got passion for films too, So I think
thank you for being on the show here and talking
(29:49):
about the film Festival July nineteenth. I'm excited to kind
of share that with the audience and have them to
ask more questions about it and they can check it
out out. And obviously, you know, when you'll have the
announcement of all the lists of the films.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
What better venue than the one that you have right which.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Tribecca hosts a film or try because obviously there in
the summer we will know that and a great opportunity
for South Asians to get together, to mingle and to
talk about their film.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
So thank you for.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Doing all that, and then hopefully you continue to get
sponsors and it grows and maybe you'll you know, it's
a nice problem to have when you write capacity, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, we're we're super excited.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Thank you for having us, thanks for all your support,
and yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
It exciting for you.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
The world's most listim to South Asian radio and podcast
network
Yeah, I mean it's it's grown tremendously.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Like I said, this is our third year, and every year,
every year we've grown. And this year we'll be at the.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Prestigious Angelica Film Festival Angelica Theater in Manhattan, which is
a landmark, and this is it's where the Trabacca Film
Festival as hell. So I don't know, to be honest,
I'm just shock every time I think about it.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
You're listening to Ruckus Avenue Radio, available now on the
free iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
So welcome to Ruckus Avenue Radio and my show Bollywood
to Hollywood. I am your host, Camar, and I have
a special guest on as well, which actually has a
very similar name to mine, but I will pronounce it
so that everyone knows about it.
Speaker 5 (01:09):
His name is com Rule Khan Come Rull Khan, goes by.
Speaker 4 (01:12):
Cam and he is a by day, he works in finance,
but he's a very passionate about film and TV. In fact,
he's got a film festival coming up for a Bangladeshi
Film Festival based in New York. But he's also a
member of Bengali's of New York. So welcome com Rale
or Cam to the show.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Thank you, thanks for having me. I'm just curious. Did
you ever have pressure to sort of hypenate your name
like I did?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah, I mean it's k KK Cam all sorts of things, right,
But you know, I mean, you know, when I grew
up in London, obviously people call me all sorts of names,
so I just kind of worked with the flow as
long as it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I'm a nineties kid, so you know, in the
nineties there was this rapper named Cameron and he used
to go by Cam, So my friends started calling me Cam,
so that's where that came from.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But mere excited to be here, thanks for having me.
Speaker 5 (02:09):
Yeah, I mean they're very excited to have you on
as well.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
And then you know, the film festival thing is very interesting, right,
and as we see like a trend to more and
more film festivals, quality film festival getting very specific with
certain ethnicities. I think it's so cool because it gives
the opportunity for filmmakers to come in and basically.
Speaker 5 (02:27):
Be part of this.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And Ruckus Avenue Radio is, you know, his largest online
radio station globally and part of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 5 (02:33):
So we want to amplify this and we want.
Speaker 4 (02:36):
To celebrate some of the South Asian events and basically
creating more awareness around this film festival. So tell me, Carmroll,
you obviously work in you know during the day, you
obviously this.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
How do you fit all of this stuff in? And
what brings you this? What to become so passionate about,
you know, a film festival like this?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, I mean it's it's grown tremendously. Like I said,
this is our third year, and every every year we've grown.
And this year we'll be at the prestigious Angelica Film
Festival Angelica Theater in Manhattan, which is a landmark, and
this is it's where the Tribecca Film Festival as hell.
So I don't know, to be honest, I'm just shocked
(03:15):
every time I think about it. I'm actually I've never
really been into I've never been sort of like a
film common stour. I mean, I like watching movies. But
it's just crazy how things have happened. I actually I started.
I was working in finance and me and a friend
wanted to highlight the stories of these Bengali street vendors
(03:37):
that are all throughout New York. So if you ever
are in New York, you'll see street carts that sell
hellout food. Most of them are Bengali, so we've always
we always were just interested in hearing their stories. So
we made a little small documentary eighteen minutes just interviewing
them and taught and following them around. And then when
we finished, we got this Australian production company to make
(03:59):
the documentary and we were just like, how do we
get this out? So we've just decided to start our
own festival and an Instagram page, and the Instagram page
kind of took off and we have over thirty five
thousand followers on this Instagram and you know, a lot
more everywhere else. And so that's how the Film for
Films Festival could have started. And the first year and
(04:20):
then I also just you know, just ask people that
ran festival how they did it. They told me about
film Freeway and other ways to get other filmmakers and
find other filmmakers. And we were excited we found all
these other Bengali filmmakers that we're doing, you know, really
interesting things. And the first year we had three films,
the second year we had six films, and I mean
(04:43):
this year we're probably going to have a lot more
than that. So it's just like I said, doubled every
year and double the size every year as well. But yeah,
I'm really not even a film guy. I just like
watching movies and sort of like happened by accident.
Speaker 5 (04:57):
That's fantastic.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I mean it's a great story, right to be able
to like and about the street carts as well, like
in the hall courts that are out there in New
York too. I mean who knew that they were mostly Bengalis.
I mean people coming there, they obviously celebrate that. First
thing they want to do is go check out the
hall court. And it's street food, right, I mean people,
you know, whether it's tacos or other things, people will
enjoy it. And especially if it's good, and especially in
somewhere like a New York where you know the city
(05:19):
never sleeps, it's a great place to have that.
Speaker 5 (05:22):
I'm curious, like.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
For your festival, you're going to have sort of street
carts stuff going on, and what people talk about festivals,
and they talk.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
About the food too, And I know it's in a
great venue.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
It isn't a great vetting. That's a really good question.
You know. I wanted to do some sort of food.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But unfortunately the theater is really strict with outside food,
so it didn't work out. But we are having an
after party at a really cool spot in Brooklyn and
it's not great food, but it's They have really good
food called a Monkey King, also owned by Bengalis, but
it's not a Bengali food. It's sort of like fusion Bengali.
So I'm excited about that. So we do have some
(05:57):
food incorporated in the after party, but not during, not during,
So obviously it'd be great if you're there.
Speaker 5 (06:04):
That's excellent, I mean, and I get it. And it's
such a great venue. We need to talk about that, right,
It's all there in East Village, is that right?
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (06:12):
So it's Angelica and this is where the Tobacco con
Festival is, like I said. And the theater itself, it's
the largest theater. It's the largest theater at the Angelica,
and I've seen many articles. It's actually voted one of
the best theater to in the country. It just looks
regal if you if you google it, you'll see the big,
the large theater at the Angelica is beautiful. Those like
(06:33):
four hundred people sounds amazing. Yeah, Like I'm.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Shocked that we are doing an event there, But yeah, how.
Speaker 5 (06:43):
Did you pull that off?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah? So we have the demand.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Last year we heard we last year we were we
were in the smaller theater at the Angelica and we
I mean we literally have to turn a lot of people.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Away and that was about one hundred and sixty people.
So we just knew, we knew we could fill it.
So we could. We decided to go after it.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
And obviously it's more expensive, but I know we'll we'll
do fine.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
And like I said, there's a demand.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
People want to watch movies but also Bengali's and thess
not just.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Bengalis by the way, I think we have We have
a lot of like.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
They see people and nan this is coming to the
festivals and they want to support. I mean, I have
a lot of friends that you know, they have non
you know, their sy spouses and girlfriends and boyfriends and
they actually want to show their nan this is you know,
boyfriends and spouses that like, look like this Bengali is
doing cool stuff, right, like let's go check it out,
(07:39):
you know.
Speaker 4 (07:40):
Absolutely, And I think that that's something to celebrate too,
and what a great venue to do it in.
Speaker 5 (07:44):
And also there's a demand, which is which is the
key thing.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
I think the message here like there's a demand out there,
you're going to fill that that theater and of course
if it sells tickets doesn't matter.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
You should have a great venue.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
I think the other thing I wanted to ask you
because for the audience listening in. I mean, I just
went to what was one of the Pakistani South the
Asian Film Festival, but we had films and it was
in Houston, and.
Speaker 5 (08:08):
It was interesting to see that there were films from.
Speaker 4 (08:11):
Kazakhstan, there were films from Europe, there were films from everywhere.
Does is there a criteria for somebody who's thinking, I
really want to submit to the Bengali Film Festival, but
I just don't. You know, I'm not Bengali, but maybe
you know my producer's Bengali, or there's cast members who
are Bengali.
Speaker 5 (08:28):
What element is there? Because I know that the other festival,
of the Pakistani film festivals like as long as there
is some verbiage around or there's some element of Pakistani
within that film, it doesn't matter if it's mostly Caucasian
or whatnot.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
So this is.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Probably good criteria. So I just wanted to see what
your thoughts were there.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, absolutely, So it doesn't we don't have a strict
criteria as long as there's against someone that's prominent in
the cast that is Bengali or the producer, writer, director,
or there's a topic.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
That released the so uh that that's what I mean.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
We've had We've had directors that are obviously Caucasian and
one of the lead actors of Bengali we had.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
A film like that. So yeah, there's no strict criter
here as long as there's something.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
We even had another film, we had a film by
a non Bengali that touched on the revolutionary war in Bangladesh.
We've yeah, I mean, yeah, all sorts of all sorts
of films as long as there's some elements to to Bengali.
And just so some of the people you know, may
be confused about Bengali.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
I actually was confused myself.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
So just so people on the understands of Bengali is
is an ethnicity, and there's Bengalis that live in Bangladesh,
which is a country you know, uh east of India,
but there's also a lot of Bengalis in India, so
people can be Bengali.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
I'm sure I'd come in and you know this this
is for the audiences. There's a Bengalis that are also
in India, Bengali Indians.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
There's actually like hundreds of millions of Bengalis in India,
and there's actually Bengalis in in Pakistan as well.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
There's and there's Bengali's all over the world. The dispur
is really uh large.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
And I even through through the Bengalis of New York
this organization, I've really come to realize how large the
day sparg community.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Is and really supportive I've met.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Now I know people Bengali is literally in probably like
almost every every country now just through this network that
I've gotten access.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
To through through through Boney been amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
That's amazing, and that's good for everyone to know as well.
And then that is a very good point. We're gonna
take a quick break for for now com and just
to come back for a second.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Gonna Honey, you're listening to ruck Us Avenue Radio.
Speaker 5 (11:04):
So welcome back everyone.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Just to let you know, I am speaking to gone
Ral Khan, who is the festival founder for the Bengali
Film Festival taking place in New York this summer, and
he's sharing with us how he formed this festival.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
How he's talking a.
Speaker 4 (11:23):
Little bit more about the diaspora of Bengalis who are
from so many different parts of the world as well.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
So Cam we were talking.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
About the fact that you know, there's Bengalis everywhere in
the world, and you know they have created and especially
New York seems to be you know, the Bengalis of
New York, you know, very cohesive. But I mean in India,
there's so many Bengalis as well, right, I mean people
forget that sometimes, right Are they situated in particularly past,
(11:51):
Is there a certain sort of culture or you know,
type of specific you know, cuisine and stuff like that
we should probably people who don't know much about the
Bengali's you know, uh, background, et cetera, probably be learned
from that.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Well. So I'm definitely not a cuisine expert.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
But you know one thing that and you probably know this,
is that most of the curry houses in London are
owned by Bengalis.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
And uh.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
But the reason that they call them Indian restaurants or
curry houses back in the day Indian curry houses was
because at that time Bangladesh, Bangladesh was a part of India,
so that whole region was India, so they just called
it Indian restaurants.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
And even now they you know, they're Bangladeshi.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
A lot of them are bad She owned, but they
don't change it to Bamada She restaurant or Bengali restaurant
because Indian obviously Indian food would uh is more is
a better business model than Bengali food. So but it's
obviously so curry's are you know, prominent.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
There's different types of curry, and.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
There's probably different, you know, differences in the different regions
of curri's. Uh So, I'm sure Bawmadeshi curry and West
Bengali curry wesh Bungali is the part of India where
Bungali's lived there, it's probably slightly different.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
But but yeah, I mean, you know, curry.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Is obviously big in bad That's there's like a stereotype
of bandad this these that that we love fits I
guess because we have a lot of an access to see.
I particularly don't love fish, but I guess I guess
that's the stereotype.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
Maybe it's probably true. But yeah, obviously, so curry is
a big piece, and I actually really love the curry
houses in in London.
Speaker 1 (13:36):
I don't know how you feel, Kama, And I'm curious
what you thought about how you call the curry curry
places in Yeah, in in the West Coast, in the
West Coaste compared to London.
Speaker 5 (13:45):
Personally, I love it.
Speaker 4 (13:47):
I love the food in London anyway in general, but
especially the South Asian cuisine and all the restaurants in general.
I mean, I'm a big fan of there's so much competition.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
That you can't you can't go wrong.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
How does it compare to the West Coast in the US.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
Oh, I would say it's nothing in comparison. Honestly, I
feel like you get the West Coast doesn't touch at
what wave is available in London and places like that.
So you really, you know, it's very spreading, it's very
spread out. London's concentrated, right, so there's a lot of
opportunity you can find. You can turn a corner and
you find a curry house. As you said, you know, so, yeah,
I'm familiar with all that. I just was thinking about
from the perspective of, you know, what people just learning
(14:26):
about more about the the you know, the culture and
the film festival with a great opportunity to highlight some
of those things.
Speaker 5 (14:32):
But let's switch gears for a second. Let's talk about
the film festival itself, right, So.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
What can people expect and what you know are you
kind of ideally looking for. So they've signed up for
you know, they've submitted the films and obviously you've got
films that are gon be announced soon. What what's the
what you said, is it a two day festival? Is
it a you know, one day festival?
Speaker 5 (14:56):
What does it look like?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
No, So we've this year it's a it's a it's
one day festival, starts about six and is about eleven.
So but next year I actually hope to again doubling
every year. I hope to have a multi day festival.
So this year's just the one day festival. And what
can people expect? So, you know, Bengalis that are filmmakers,
obviously they they they're making films that that are about.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Topics that are important to them.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
So now we're seeing a lot of submissions from members
of the LGBT community, for example, you know, things that
they are you know, parting difficulty in facing their families
with topics that they're following difficulty. So we're seeing a
lot of that, you know, we're seeing a lot of
themes that relate to you know, topics that they struggle with,
(15:44):
like you know, you know, careers that their families are
not happy about. You know, for example, we've got one
where it's someone is a you know, dancer, or is
there someone that else is a uh.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
You know, a graphic artist. You know, Traditionally those are
not feels that Banallei parents are happy with. So there's
a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Like that where people are making films and documentaries and
about things that they're going through and it's a lot
of that. And yeah, and there's a lot of personal stories.
I've seen a lot of people's personal stories about their
upbringing and you know in New York and inner cities,
(16:28):
not just in New York and other parts of the countries.
Speaker 2 (16:31):
Just interesting and moving stories.
Speaker 5 (16:34):
That's awesome. I mean, do you feel like and there
is how many shorts are we.
Speaker 4 (16:41):
Looking at versus like features in this in the film festival?
Then it's only a day long, So I'm just curious
from that perspective.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Yeah, it's been it's been hard to say no to
features because you know, one feature means that you know,
we we wouldn't have.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
Room for that many films.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
So we're trying to say not to features and mostly
focusing on films max around you know, thirty minutes.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
So no features.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
But like I said, eventually that would be the goal
because we've had to say no to some really good,
you know, feature films.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
I mean it's it's hard to sort of put everything
in one day, so it's really short, right, We're going
to be focused on mostly yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah, And not only that, we've also had a lot
of interest for musicians to show their like music videos
and stuff.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
That's been an interesting one.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, they see musicians wanting us to show their music
and we may do that maybe.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
And the one thing I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Because of this was the New York and the festival
in general, I've met someone people all over the world,
and I've gotten interest for from people to take it
on the road.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
Come on.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I don't know if you follow what's going on in Brondadish,
but there's a there's a you know, giant, there's a
sort of a mini revolution going on in Bahnladash and
so that they're calling a BD two point zero, and
there's a lot there's a there's a demand for just
like entertainment and just celebrating the culture and things like that.
And so I'm actually speaking to some folks about doing
(18:10):
affectival Invomladesh, which was you know, which would This is
going to be massive because I have the experience in
doing it here, so that you know, people that actually
are in a position to bring into Balmades.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
I'm really excited about that as well.
Speaker 5 (18:24):
Actually, that reminds me. She connected with somebody who I
did PBS show for.
Speaker 4 (18:28):
He's actually lives in Dhaka and she does a lot
of work here in La as well, and actually booked
me for a voice over for He's married to Bangladesh.
She's a Caucasian guy and great guy to connect with
as well, so he could probably help you with stuff
on the ground there in Daka as well.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
It's been a lot of this just like people like you,
people like that are like you know that that have
been just introducing to people that are just passionate. And
I think, I think, going back to what I like
how I started, I think because it's a passion project
and I'm not you know, I think people sense like
nobody on my team myself, we're not trying to make
the millionaires from this. We're not you know, it's not
(19:08):
our day job. We're really it's a passion project. And
I think people sense that and want to support.
Speaker 6 (19:20):
You're listening to ruck Us Avenue Radio Avenue available now
on the free iHeart Radio.
Speaker 5 (19:42):
I mean, look, I'll give you another example. One of
the South Asian Film Festival, the one just went to.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
I mean, I asked everybody, you know, so you know,
we were talking about what they do, what else they do?
These are filmmakers, invested their own money or they raised money,
whatever it was. But they also have a day job.
So one was a doctor for example, one was a
in tech. And and I say, I encourage those people. I said, listen,
it's fine, And that's what I love is because there's
obviously a passion around this, right And maybe they didn't
(20:08):
know initially that that's what they're really passionate and maybe
this rearing in that direction. But the connections you made
the network opportunity for me. I mean again, as I mentioned,
like we're sharing today, we have an opportunity to create
as well to to network so well with other South Asians, Bengali,
Indian and Pakistani or whatnot. Doesn't really matter that the
point is that we're all singularly focused. You mentioned music,
(20:31):
and I ended up performing twice on in the film Face.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
I saw one of your videos. Wow you're you're in
mouth size how it's amazing.
Speaker 5 (20:38):
Well, thank you, thank you for that.
Speaker 4 (20:39):
And so but it was great to an opportunity to
showcase my song, right, to be able to sing you know,
a Bollywood song or and also you know, do something
around you know, my own song, which is going to
be released actually on this weekend. So just things like that,
and the other people had the opportunity to do that
or if they have a music video, like you said,
why not, right, And so that creates especially with shorts,
(21:01):
it creates an opportunity to to create some kind of
a an event and fun event right at the end
of the shorts or whatnot.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
So this entertainment value.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
But I think all of those things, you know, to
celebrate the culture, the fusion that exists, especially in the
New York culture is great.
Speaker 5 (21:17):
So how do you feel about kind of you know,
films yourself? I mean, were you an actor? You're filmmaker?
How did this you know? What's your passion there?
Speaker 1 (21:29):
No, I'm definitely not an actor. I have zero acting talent.
Like I said, it was just a passion project. I mean,
I love I do love movies. I mean I'm a
big you know, Parentino fan, and you know I have
I have like five or six movies that I watch
every year. So I'm kind of stuck in my ways
(21:51):
in a little bit. But you know, and so I
had probably a lot of movies from the early two
thousands and nineties sort of like that's my my permanent
years in college.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And but no, I'm.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
Definitely I'm a movie I love movies, but definitely zero
acting or directing talent.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's the all we need, right, we just need passion
and watch movies and whatnot, because that's exactly we need.
So we need something like you know, you came on
there as well, right, I mean, I think and we've
got we've got to mention our good friends to hell
connected us in the first place, right, Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (22:25):
Yeah, he's he's actually a judge. He's a judge in
our festival. Yeah, he's doing he's been he's been great.
He's been also connecting me to a lot of people.
But I'll say, you know, the other thing I'll say is, uh,
a lot of what I do with the festival and
Butal's of New York. It's uh, project management, right, It's
(22:47):
just managing people and managing projects. And I feel like
my day job has helped a lot with that, just
working in finance. So it's interesting, like I definitely borrowed
some of what I do in my day job to
get a lot of this going. And in a way,
it's actually a lot more difficult because most of the
folks on my team are volunteers, you know, just you know,
(23:08):
they get paid sometimes on projects, but it's mostly volunteer work.
So it's you know, getting these people to be motivated
and work on a lot of this stuff really for
free is really difficult, right, getting them continued to be
motivated as opposed to like my day job.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
Obviously, you know I pay, you know, I pay, I
pay the people on my teams. It's not always a
lot more difficult, but it's definitely a lot more fulfilling
as well.
Speaker 4 (23:32):
That's fantastic, And I think I'm getting these festivals and
seeing that there's so many volunteers, some people people spending
their own money right to go in and the filmmakers
that were invested in traveling around the globe or just
traveling in the US to go in and stay at
hotels talk about their film. I mean that's a from
even from a filmmaker perspective, and I look at it,
it's it's an investment. But you're doing it because you
(23:53):
love it, and you're doing it because you want to
connect with others and you want to make more films.
And that's the thing that I think is pretty exciting, right,
So for you doing that, So thanks for putting it
out there, you know, and creating something like this, which
is awesome for people listening. And when is the festival,
by the way, exactly the date that they can they
can come into New York and you know what time
(24:14):
does it start? And you said and at eleven is
then you just mentioned there's an after party as well,
So that's kind of fun create people to come over there.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
And how many people do you expect this year?
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Sure?
Speaker 1 (24:26):
So the festival is July nineteenth at the Villages by
Angelica in the Lower East Side of Manhattan and I'm sorry,
the Village in Manhattan and it will start six to
eleven and then there's an after party at the Monkey
King in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to a really hot spot and
we so the theater holds three hundred and sixty five people,
(24:48):
so that's what we expect will be cool.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
We'll be at capacity for sure.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
But you know, like I said, there's been interest in
us because we've had to turn people away. Maybe we'll
do maybe not annually, maybe we made we were thinking
about maybe doing a bi annual one because it's you know,
the thing.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Is, it's the summer.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
It's a lot of people, there's a lot going on,
and also a lot of people go away for the summer.
So we're actually thinking about maybe doing a midwinter one
as well. So, you know, so the web, the socials are.
The socials are Bengalis of New York on Instagram and
Bungali Film Comfortable Bungalai Films on Instagram as well. There
are our main sort of places to get information.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
And you mentioned things like, you know, this can't be
done without sponsors, right, So if somebody wants to be
a sponsor of the film or wants to be involved
in some way, who's listening in, where could they go about,
how would they reach you to to to do that
and if there are any levels, et cetera. Is it on
a website?
Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, I would say reach out to us about the
levels is contact Bengalees of New York dot com or
or our instagram that's a great place too, So Bungalei's
of New York. That's our Instagram handle, and we have
different levels and we will we can obviously Taylor the
sponsor to various levels, and we're allowing you know, some of.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
The sponsors, they're gonna have a table.
Speaker 1 (26:05):
One of our sponsors are going to have an actual
table at the venue. It's a really large venue, so
they have a whole separate place for venue for sponsors,
and we have a we're doing a red carpet, so
you'll see if you go on our instagram, you'll see
the pictures from our red carpet last year with the
banners in the back.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
It was it was amazing. We got a lot of
traffic from those pictures.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
But yeah, if anyone is interested in sponsoring, I'd love
to talk to you. Yeah, they'll just reach out to
reach out to a we so shoulder or email yea and.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Hopefully some pressed too write for those people out there
coming and that'll be awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, absolutely not.
Speaker 1 (26:43):
We're not great at that, to be honest with you
come on like we're just not great at going out
and getting you know, I think it's maybe like a
South Asian they see thing like we're just not like
we do these things that we really haven't gone out
and try to get pressed for any of it. Like
we've gotten some just by just cooling, but we haven't
done a lot of that. And maybe it's a part
(27:03):
of me just going maybe doing more work around.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
You know, pr but but we haven't. We haven't and
a lot of it's been just just happened. But we
need to do a better job on that because because
we need to, like, you.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
Know, we're enjoying it and there's a lot of work
and we're uh, you know, gaming momentum, but we need
to do a better job of telling.
Speaker 4 (27:24):
People absolutely, Look, I'm excited for this particular festival, and
I know a lot of people are as well.
Speaker 5 (27:32):
Hopefully there's going to be.
Speaker 4 (27:33):
More of this out there that you know, I'm going
to sort of by closing or ask you about what
your favorite films are if you were to highlight and
know it's a tough question, but you know, something you've
seen or a lot of the festivals, maybe the last
couple of years rather than you know, give me a
sort of a general Hollywood film, but something that you've
kind of inspires you, that you've seen in the festivals
(27:55):
over the last couple of years, that you've been like,
oh my gosh, you know, something like this must be showcased.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
So one of the films we showed last year we
I'll be honest with you, I'm not a big fan
of of uh. They call it Dollywood, which is sort
of the Dhaka Bollywood, which is the Valuywood the film industry.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
And I'm not a fan of their films.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
I think their tend to be cheesy and production quality
is not great. But one of the films that we
showed last year was called Mashari m O s h
a r y I and it was it was actually
a horror film by a filmmaker uh.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
And he's actually the son of a famous vamad she writer.
His name is who own and and.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It's on YouTube actually now it's called Masherie and it's
and and And I also never get scared. I find
scary movies to be cheesy. I never really get scared.
But this this.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Film scared me.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And it's production He was that high and the writing
was that goods Commashari and was by a Bandaditi filmmaker,
all the director, So I was really impressed.
Speaker 2 (29:08):
That really impressed me. So and we showed that last
year and that same director.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
He also committed another film this year, so super excited
to show his film again. And so I was really
really excited about that because I was like, Wow, this
is about all the filmmaker making this amazing film that
I could I could see, you know, going to the
Oscars and doing really.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Well, Yeah, I know, that's amazing, like you know, to
do highlighting a film that you know, he just resonated
with you, which is surprising. Sometimes you know what can
and what can't you know, and that's awesome. Look, I
clearly you've got passion for films too, So I think
thank you for being on the show here and talking
(29:49):
about the film Festival July nineteenth. I'm excited to kind
of share that with the audience and have them to
ask more questions about it and they can check it
out out. And obviously, you know, when you'll have the
announcement of all the lists of the films.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
What better venue than the one that you have right which.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Tribecca hosts a film or try because obviously there in
the summer we will know that and a great opportunity
for South Asians to get together, to mingle and to
talk about their film.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
So thank you for.
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Doing all that, and then hopefully you continue to get
sponsors and it grows and maybe you'll you know, it's
a nice problem to have when you write capacity, right, Oh.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, we're we're super excited.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Thank you for having us, thanks for all your support,
and yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (30:31):
It exciting for you.
Speaker 3 (30:50):
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