Can Bangladesh make a space film? Taneem Rahman Angshu believes the bigger question is not whether it can be made, but whether there is a market ready for it. With “Limbo”, his upcoming cosmic romance and space film envisioned through CGI, VFX and animation, Angshu wants to capture the wonder of space without severing the story from its earthly roots – the socio-cultural world of Bangladeshi people.

“Limbo” marks Angshu’s return to feature filmmaking following the National Film Award-winning “No Dorai”. The project is still at the screenwriting stage, with “Laapataa Ladies” writer Biplab Goswami developing the screenplay.

The Daily Star caught up with the filmmaker to unpack the ambition behind “Limbo” and how he plans to pull it off. “The main narrative is romance,” Angshu said. “Space is the subplot.”

The leap feels less surprising when viewed against the trajectory of Angshu’s career. Whether working in television, OTT, music videos or commercials, he says he has consistently been drawn to forms and genres that were not widely explored in Bangladesh.

“I have always tried to make different kinds of projects, things that can become trendsetters,” he said. “I have tried different genres and gone for things that usually aren’t practised in Bangladesh.”

In fact, space was not his first destination. Angshu had initially contemplated making a zombie film, before deciding that perhaps the challenge was not daunting enough.

“I gave it another thought and said, let’s do something even more challenging,” he recalled. “I like taking up challenges. That is how the idea of a space cosmic drama came.”

A conventional mainstream film risked feeling too formulaic, while another straightforward romance did not offer the freshness he was looking for. Eventually, he found a way to preserve the emotional core of a love story while taking it into a setting audiences would not normally expect.

The next question was who could help him write it.

Biplab Goswami’s “Laapataa Ladies” unfolded within the rhythms of rural Indian life, far removed from the technological terrain of “Limbo”. But it was precisely Goswami’s ability to locate warmth and recognisability within his characters that appealed to Angshu.

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The two have known each other since last year. When Angshu eventually shared “Limbo” with Goswami, he said the story “instantly clicked”.

“The quality he brings is his ability to give life to a film in a very natural way,” Angshu said. “The way he narrates stories is very relatable within our social and cultural context.”

Angshu sees the cultural affinities between Bangladesh and India as particularly useful to the collaboration. Rather than allowing the extraterrestrial setting to detach the film from its audience, he hopes Goswami’s grounded storytelling sensibility will keep it emotionally accessible.

“If we can create that fine blend, when you are watching a film coming from this part of South Asia, but it is unfolding around an outer-space station, that harmony can become something interesting,” he said.

Then he returned to “Laapataa Ladies” to make the distinction clearer.

“‘Laapataa Ladies’ is a simple village drama, right? ‘Limbo’ may not be a village drama, but perhaps it is a story about us,” he said. “There is no superhero. This is about just a man next door.”

It is perhaps the most revealing description of “Limbo” so far. Beneath the film’s perceived technical spectacle, Angshu wants audiences to recognise the person within it.

A Bangladeshi space film will inevitably invite comparisons with Hollywood, something Angshu is prepared for.

“If I treat this entirely like a Hollywood film, it might not work here,” he said.

Angshu is working hands-on with CGI and visual effects, experience that gives him confidence about the technical undertaking ahead. He wants the film to reach an international visual standard, but not at the expense of its own identity.

“The quality can be akin to Hollywood, but the context has to be deeply rooted in our socio-cultural reality, so that it feels believable to our people,” he explained.

Getting there will take time. “Limbo” will require an extensive pre-production period, from character development and casting to grooming and specialised training for the actors. Casting is currently underway, while CGI, animation and visual effects are expected to make up a substantial part of the production process.

Still, ask Angshu about the hardest part of making a Bangladeshi space film and he does not immediately point towards a computer screen.

“Making a space film is not impossible,” he said. “I have the expertise to pull off what is required for a space film. But the market will always be a barrier.”

That, perhaps, is the more interesting frontier “Limbo” has to cross.

Bangladesh does not yet have an established commercial ecosystem for films of this kind. Infrastructure is limited, but Angshu is equally conscious of something less tangible: whether audiences have developed enough confidence in homegrown cinema to follow it into a genre they are more accustomed to seeing elsewhere.

“Our infrastructure and audience interest are not really there yet,” he said. “But it is our responsibility to slowly give audiences that reliance and trust.”

There are reasons for optimism. Still, the director believes audiences are becoming increasingly receptive to genres beyond familiar formulas.

The filmmaker plans to complete shooting and post-production ahead of a theatrical release in 2027. Until then, venturing into space marks another attempt to pursue what has defined much of his career: stretching the boundaries of what a Bangladeshi story can look like.