MUMBAI: BIG Pictures’ Bengali film directed by Rituparno Ghosh – Shob Charitro Kalponik (Afterword) starring Bipasha Basu has been selected for the 30th Durban Film Festival 2009.

The festival will be held from 22 July to 2 August 2009. Ghosh will be traveling to Durban, South Africa for the screening of the film, which is scheduled for 30 July.

Written and directed by Ghosh, Shob Charitro Kalponik, is a story of death and loss with many emotional and romantic moments. Apart from Basu, it also stars Prosenjit Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Pauli Dam and Sohag Sen. The film has music by Sanjoy Das and Raja Narayan Deb.

Ghosh says, "Durban Film Festival is a very popular film festival and I am very glad that Shob Charitro Kalponik is being showcased at the festival. The protagonist of this film is the Bengali language and it is through the vehicle of the language that the love story of the film travels."

BIG Pictures COO Mahesh Ramanathan added, "Our efforts to broaden international horizons for Bengali films are beginning to be successful. Rituparno’s work has been widely acclaimed globally. Shob Charitro Kalponik’s selection in the Panorama Section of Durban film festival is a first ever premier for a Bengali film in the African continent. With this success, BIG Pictures have now secured selection for 10 of its world cinema titles in over 12 prestigious international festivals in the last six months. It’s a historical first for any production house in India."

Shob Charitro Kalponik will be screened in the Panorama Section of the festival, alongside films by directors such as Woody Allen, the Dardenne Brothers, Lars von Trier, Laurent Cantet, Steven Soderbergh, Takeshi Kitano and Michael Winterbottom.