LBC Media is making a web series featuring a slew of national celebrities.

'Six' is the first of its kind from the producer.

Celebrated stars Sadia Islam Mau, Iftekhar Ahmed Fahmi, Aparna Ghosh, Sohail Mandal, Tariq Anam Khan, Yash Rohan, Ashok Byapari, and others star in the six-episode series. It's worth noting that this is the first time Sadia Islam Mou has appeared in a web series, says a press release.

For the first time on this stage, producer Fahmi will also perform. Tanim Parvez is directing the web series "Six," which is created by Red Paid Studio.

This is the first time in Bangladesh that LBC Media is making a web series with such a large cast on an OTT platform, the press release added.

LBC Media Head of Operations and Sales Omar Farooq Chowdhury said the company began its journey in Bangladesh as a distribution partner of two completely different OTT platforms, Eros Now and Adda Times.

“It can be easily subscribed to using any of Bangladesh's major payment wallets, such as bKash, cash, or a bank card. LBC's main aim is to promote Bangladeshi content globally, such as Bangla movies, web shows, dramas, and music. In order to continue the plot, we will create a web series called 'Six.' We hope that this web series, 'Six,' will be broadcast on an international OTT network as Bangladeshi content,” he said.

LBC Media is the distribution partner of Erosnow and Addatimes in Bangladesh. LBC focuses on contributing Bangladeshi content to the global platform and bringing international content to the doorstep of Bangladeshi audience. Six is the first Bangladeshi content by LBC media , that will be released in Eros now globally in April.

ZEE5 Global has unveiled the first look of its upcoming web series "Contract," starring Bangladesh's Chanchal Chowdhury and Arifin Shuvoo in the lead roles.

The web series is an action-packed political thriller based on the book of the same name by renowned Bangladeshi author Mohammad Nazim Uddin.

Following the success of "Mainkar Chipay" and "WTFry," "Contract" promises to be the next big hit for the OTT platform.

Like the other Bangla originals, "Contract" will also be free to watch for Bangladeshi viewers.

Nazim Uddin's thriller book "Contract" narrates the story of how the rich and powerful exploit the weak and create contract killers for their gain.

This is the first time Chanchal Chowdhury and Arifin Shuvoo will share the screen in a web series.

Actors Shamol Mawla, Zakia Bari Mamo, Rafiath Rashid Mithila and Tariq Anam Khan will also play key roles in the series.

Directed by Tanim Noor and Krishnendu Chattopadhyay, "Contract" is also featuring Parthe Sarkar as the associate director.

Arifin Shuvoo revealed the first look of the show on Tuesday evening by sharing the official poster of the series on his social media handles.

"Contract" is set to be released on March 18 on all the available platforms of ZEE5.

Lady Gaga’s dog walker, who was shot last week during a robbery in Hollywood when two of the singer’s French bulldogs were stolen, described the violence and his recovery “from a very close call with death” in social media posts Monday.

Ryan Fischer’s posts included pictures taken from his hospital bed, where he says “(a) lot of healing still needs to happen” but he looks forward to reuniting with the dogs.

Fischer was shot once as he walked three of Lady Gaga’s dogs on Wednesday night on a street just off the famed Sunset Boulevard. Video captured by the doorbell camera of a nearby home captured Fischer’s screams of “Oh my God! I’ve been shot!” and “Help me!” and “I’m bleeding out from my chest!”

Police are seeking two men in the attack and said Monday they are still investigating.

The two dogs, named Koji and Gustav, were returned unharmed Friday evening when a woman showed up at a Los Angeles police station with them. Detectives do not believe she was involved in the robbery or shooting and did not know if she would receive the $500,000 reward Lady Gaga had offered for the dogs’ return. The singer is currently in Rome to film a movie.

Fischer thanked Lady Gaga for her support during the ordeal, writing “your babies are back and the family is whole ... we did it!” in Instagram posts. A third dog, named Asia, escaped the assailants and lies down next to Fischer “while a car sped away and blood poured from my gun shot (sic) wound,” he wrote.

The doorbell video shows a white sedan pulling up and two men jumping out. They struggled with the dog walker before one pulled a gun and fired a single shot before fleeing with two of the dogs.

Echoing solidarity with the global Black Lives Matter movement against racial injustices, much-anticipated art exhibition “The Black Story,” was launched virtually by Gallery Cosmos on Thursday.

Curated by Nahar Khan, Executive Director of Gallery Cosmos, the special exhibition is shedding the spotlight on the recent wave of protests against racial injustices perpetrated against the Black community in America, which inspired people of all colours across continents to proclaim “Black Lives Matter”, in solidarity with the movement.

Also read:Enthralling artworks showcase Sheikh Hasina's eventful life at Gallery Cosmos

Featuring a powerful combination of artistic expression from five prominent Bangladeshi visual artists: Alakesh Ghosh, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, Afrozaa Jamil Konka, Bishwajit Goswami and Sourav Chowdhury, and a series of intellectual interventions with global art-enthusiasts and specialists - the exhibition is aiming to explore the intolerable injustices and generational trauma experienced by black communities.

This interactive exhibition delves into the interactions between the historic Black and South Asian communities, harmonizing the motif to examine, expose, and embrace the historical and ancestral ties of people in this region, the organizers emphasized at the inauguration of this month-long exhibition.

Nahar Khan, Executive Director of Gallery Cosmos, inaugurated the special event at 9 pm on Thursday at Gallery Cosmos and UNB’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/GalleryCosmos and https://www.facebook.com/unbnewsroom.

Hosted by Nabila Rahman, the inauguration was also joined by eminent Bangladeshi social activist, feminist, and environmentalist Khushi Kabir, and Nigerian American visual artist Osi Audu.

Nahar Khan, in her capacity as curator, mentioned that the exhibition has been profoundly transformative for her on a personal and professional level.

Shedding light on the history, Nahar Khan said, “The two communities (Black and South Asian) in the West share a longstanding history of being allies and enjoyed a sense of camaraderie born out of their shared struggles to build solidarity. These connections are best embodied by the ‘mixed’ lives of Black Bengalis. Vivek Bald’s ‘Bengali Harlem and the Lost Histories of South Asian America’, reveals how multiple waves of Bengali Muslim migrants became part of iconic American cities like New York, New Orleans, and Detroit."

Nahar Khan pointed out how their men were known for inter-marrying with African American, Creole, and Puerto Rican women, building new lives in the American working-class communities of colour between the 1880s and early 1900s.”

“The ties between Black and South Asian communities are not just limited to the diaspora that exists in the West,” she continued. “Black-South Asia is an important and mostly unexplored segment of the Global African Diaspora which is present across the region: such as the African descended communities of Gujrat and Karnataka’s Sidis, Hyderabad’s Chaush, Pakistan’s Seedis, and Sri Lanka’s Kaffirs.”

“The body of work presented here is a collective commentary on the experience of systemic oppression, racism, and discrimination faced by the Black community; and examines how our own communities have institutionalized anti-black sentiments. Through this month-long virtual exhibition, we hope to engage Bangladeshi and global audiences on a journey to discover how our communities are intertwined. The Black Story comprises works encompassing painting, video, sound, poetry, film, and photography. Concurrently, a series of webinars and interviews will be held to create meaningful dialogue around issues of race, identity, and power (or lack thereof). Through multi-disciplinary art and intellectual discourse, The Black Story will explore our past, examine our present, and imagine our future in the context of institutionalized racism experienced by minority communities,” Nahar Khan added, explaining the event details.

Also read: Curtain rises on first-ever virtual exhibition on Bangabandhu by Gallery Cosmos

Congratulating the organizers for initiating this special exhibition, Khushi Kabir said, “Art is such a positive form of trying to bring out the nuances that exist in society. I really want to congratulate Gallery Cosmos and Nahar Khan for organizing 'The Black Story', and we need to work to have a world that does not exploit nature, people and everything that is beautiful. I believe art is the best way to bring this issue to the forefront.”

“The Black Lives Matter movement became as big as it is today with the murder of George Floyd which brought global attention towards the issue regarding the black lives, though it was always there. If we look at the history of the USA right from the very beginning, we see that there has always been racial injustice but it also has had its existence in our (South Asian) communities as well,” Khushi Kabir, the lead convenor of Nijera Kori Foundation, added.

“I think it is the time to start looking at ourselves, as we also have tinctures of racism within us as we are part of such globalisation consisting the problematic epitome of beauty and certain skin tones-looks-features, and do not try to realise that each of us has different characteristics by nature. Being aware of and respecting all human beings, and not having preconceived notions and ideas of what constitutes what a person is or should be and should not be, is something that we have to start breaking from,” Khushi Kabir suggested.

Acclaimed Nigerian American visual artist Osi Audu said, “I am deeply honoured to be on this platform as a visual artist and a Black artist, and my experience of facing racism actually began when I moved to London and then moved to the US; as the western world deliberately tried to demotivate me from my passion to the abstract art. The reality which I found later that abstraction was not originally a western phenomenon. The abstraction and abstract thought, in terms of art and aesthetics, came into the West through Picasso when he actually interacted with some figurative works from Congo, which resulted in the production of these abstract works. Prior to then, ‘realism’ was the main form of art that started way back in the Renaissance period, made very popular by Leonardo (Da Vinci).”

“So that was one of the ways that I kicked against some of the silent racist thoughts about what the Africans are, what their imaginations should be engaged in because one of the insidious things about racism and generally the prevalent anti-black sentiment is that it wants to hijack and give your imagination a different narrative,” he shared his side of fighting back and forth with the struggles.

Also read:Group art exhibition 'Musicality in Wood' begins at Gallery Cosmos

“I intentionally went against all odds and did not allow my imagination to strive with struggles, enslavement, and sadness. I dared and still continue to dare to look at the full extents of black lives. Look at our (black artists) subject matters: love, happiness, fantasy, and all types of ideas which was the reason that the Black Panther movie became highly successful. I am really inspired by the stories of people who strived to live their life to the fullest of their imagination and potential, looking at modern-day examples like former president Barack Obama, Vice President Kamala Harris and more,” Audu said at the event.

Focusing on the peaceful harmony against racism, he added that the protests that swept through America in response to George Floyd’s killing, were joined by people of all colours in demanding racial equality. “Not all white people are racist. In fact, a lot of them had died during the civil war in America against slavery - and my own personal story has been determined by that. At the core of our being, we have a lot of common - more than what separates us.””

Also watch: The Black Story

Apart from the evocative artworks from the five participating and renowned Bangladeshi visual artists, there will be interesting segments showcased in the exhibition alongside webinars, photography, poetry, film, and various audio and visual multimedia pieces through its dedicated and interactive virtual gallery.

“The exhibition entitled The Black Story will stand as proof that many of the debates around race, violence, injustice and discrimination centring the Black Movement have been left unconfronted for far too long. Although the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the opening of the exhibition, its cross-disciplinary approach that encompasses the art, sound, sculpture, video, photography, live talk shows, performances, poetry and music will make this event a unique initiative by Gallery Cosmos, conceived and curated by Nahar Khan. Cosmos Foundation is delighted to support The Black Story,” Enayetullah Khan, chairman of the Cosmos Foundation stated regarding the exhibition.

In partnership with Cosmos-Atelier71, The Black Story is supported by Cosmos Foundation while UNB is the media partner (full disclosure: Cosmos Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Cosmos Group, UNB's owning company). Proceeds from The Black Story will go towards the Black & Indigenous People of Colour Creative Association (BIPOC-CA).

Also read: Gallery Cosmos art camp on PM Hasina begins

The month-long virtual exhibition is inviting people from all walks of lives from February 25 to March 25, 2021, on the official website of the exhibition at www.theblackstory.com, as well as through the social media pages of the Gallery and UNB.

If you’re coming to “ Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry ” hoping for a primer on the music sensation, you’ve come to the wrong place. Filmmaker R.J. Cutler’s two hour and 20-minute documentary about the “Ocean Eyes” singer and songwriter is not biography or reportage. It’s a verite-style plunge into her life, her home, her concerts, her process, her Tourette’s, her brother’s bedroom where they famously write all their songs and even her diary in the year in which she became a star.

It is raw and filled with music — over 20 of her songs are played over the course of the film, including live performances, like her extraordinary Coachella showing in 2019. Some are shown in full. It is also very, very long.

Cutler, who also did “The September Issue” and “Belushi,” cited seminal verite rock docs “Gimme Shelter” and “Dont Look Back” as inspiration. But both of those came a few years and albums into The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan’s superstardom. Eilish’s ascent is extraordinary and yet she is still in the early part of her artistic and actual life. Fans will certainly disagree, as is their right, but it is an enormous amount of unfiltered space to give to an artist who is still getting started. There’s no right or wrong way to make a documentary like this, but for the Eilish curious and not the Eilish die-hards, it’s initiation by fire without any context.

Also read: Amid racial reckoning, Grammys honor the Black experience

Clearly someone in Eilish’s camp had an eye toward legacy when they invited Cutler to her family home to see if he wanted to follow the then-16-year-old during her breakout year, during which she and her brother Finneas wrote, recorded and released her debut album “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

Eilish is funny and sullen and charismatic and moody, just as you’d want and expect a teenage artist to be. She gets dreamy and protective of her followers, saying “they’re not my fans, they’re like part of me” and complains that for her, writing songs is “torture.” And she breaks the fourth wall occasionally (she’d told Cutler that she wanted it to be like “The Office”) to let the audience knows that she knows they’re there.

Her brother is the driving force a lot of the productivity in their cozy family home in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles (he’s since moved out). Their parents homeschooled them and music was always part of their life, with mom, Maggie Baird, teaching them how to write songs and dad, Patrick O’Connell, teaching instruments.

It is interesting to see her and Finneas riff about lyrics and test things out — he has anxiety about having to produce a hit and she couldn’t care less — and the juxtaposition of her glamorous appearances and performances with the modest normalcy of their home life.

There are some terrific moments that Cutler caught out on the road: In one instance, she meets Katy Perry who introduces Eilish to her fiance — “a big fan.” It’s only later that Eilish realizes that was Orlando Bloom. Her brother reminds her he is “Will Turner from the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movies.” She wants a redo. “I thought he was just some dude,” she says.

Another is her first meeting with Justin Bieber. She talks about her longstanding obsession in an interview, he gets in touch three days before her album release about wanting to collaborate. (She tells her manager that “he could ask me to kill my dog and I would.”) Then at Coachella he appears as she’s greeting a hoard of her fans. She freezes and becomes a fan herself. Later she’ll sob over a heartfelt message he sends her.

Also read: Family affair: Billie Eilish, Finneas win big at Grammys

And there are some incredibly vulnerable moments too, showing the performer exhausted and annoyed. Eilish remains as unique and enigmatic as she seems from a distance, but also is presented very much like a normal Los Angeles teenager, getting her driver’s license, dreaming of a matte black Dodge Challenger and texting with a largely absent boyfriend.

Fans will eat up every morsel of this documentary and wish for more. For newcomers, however, it might benefit from watching in installments, which is one of the benefits of the film debuting on Apple TV+. There’s even an intermission to help take the guesswork out of where to hit pause.

This does not come across as a vanity project that’s been intensely controlled by the star or the machinery around her, either. It’s refreshing. It’s also probably one of the last times we’ll all be invited into her life in this way.

“Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry,” an Apple TV+ and Neon release out Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Running time: 140 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Also read: A Grammys ‘Savage’: Beyoncé leads with 9 nominations