Filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has dismissed reports of a separation from his wife, actress Nusrat Imrose Tisha, calling the claims baseless and saying he has no interest in engaging with them.
Farooki, a former culture affairs adviser to the interim government, also said his Facebook account had been hacked on Saturday morning. He alleged that a Bangladeshi cybercrime group was celebrating the incident in online groups and called for law enforcement agencies to take action.
“I woke up in the morning and saw what had happened. They tried to hack my account and deactivated it. A Bangladeshi cybercrime group is celebrating this in different groups. I have screenshots,” he told bdnews24.com. “Law enforcement agencies need to be active on these matters. This is an issue of citizens’ safety.”
Asked about the separation reports circulating online and in some media outlets, Farooki said he had no time to respond.
“I have no time to talk about that news, and no interest. There is no basis to any of this. I have no time to listen to such nonsense,” he said.
He also described social media discussions about his alleged property ownership in Australia and Switzerland as amusing.
“The most amusing thing is the idea that someone owns a house in Australia or Switzerland. Anyone can find that with a search. This kind of propaganda about me has surfaced before,” he said. “Instead of getting caught up in these irrelevant controversies, write about my work.”
Farooki said he had completed two commercials, one for a software company and another for a building materials company. The shoots took place in Dhaka, Mymensingh and South Korea.
He is preparing to shoot a third commercial featuring a celebrity, whose identity he said he might reveal within a day.
The filmmaker is also developing scripts for two feature films. One is a love story, tentatively titled “To Hell, With Love”, which explores changing ideas of romance among younger people.
“It is a love story, not a thriller. The definition of love is changing for the new generation. I am trying to capture these new definitions of love and understand what love looks like for Gen Z,” he said. “The script is almost complete. For now, I have named it ‘To Hell, With Love’.”
The second film has a political backdrop and is also nearing completion. Farooki said he had yet to decide which project would go into production first.
Farooki and Tisha married on July 16, 2010. Their daughter, Ilham Nusrat Farooki, was born in 2022.
Tisha has appeared in television dramas and films including “Third Person Singular Number”, “Television”, “Ostitto”, “Doob”, “Halda”, “Mayaboti” and “Phagun Haway”. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her performances in “Halda”, directed by Tauquir Ahmed, and “Ostitto”, directed by Anonno Mamun.
Farooki began making films in 1999. Under the Chabial banner, he directed single-episode and serial dramas including “Spartacus ’71”, “Ekannoborti”, “69” and “420”. His feature films include “Bachelor”, “Made in Bangladesh”, “Third Person Singular Number”, “Television” and “Doob”.
His latest feature film, “840: Democracy Private Limited”, was released in 2024. He has not directed another feature film since.