‘Messenger of God’ wins second in the ‘West Meets East Screenplay Lab’ at Dhaka

Nigam (Left) at 21st Dhaka International Film Festival

The 'WME Screenplay Lab' began on January 15 with a total submission of 62 screenplays from different South Asian countries where ‘Messenger of God’ won funding of $3,000 for the project

-the_farsight | Jan. 21, 2023, 12:04 p.m.

Writer-director Nigam Bhandari’s screenplay for the project ‘Messenger of God' has emerged second in the ‘West Meets East Screenplay Lab’, which was part of the 21st Dhaka International Film Festival that concluded last Wednesday.

‘Messenger of God’ involves the story of some old men and women who band together to secretly hunt down mysterious animals that they’ve never encountered before in their village’s landscape after their village faces a series of attacks from them.

According to Nigam, the fund will be used in carrying out further research on the location and characters of the film.

Nigam is currently a graduate film student from New York University (NYU) Tisch School of Arts, a fellow at the Purin Foundation, and also has a graduate scholarship from Asian Cultural Council.

The film is planned for production under the filmmaker Prabin Kumar Rawat and will be presented by Cryptid Films.

Prabin is the producer of the film Wheels on the Bus which was selected for Generation Kplus at the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale).

Cryptid Films, founded by Prabin and Nigam, has many short films to its credit over the last eight years, some of which have made it to the film festivals like Sundance, Berlin, and Busan.