From Bangladesh to Hollywood Wahid Ibn Reza Speaks

Wahid Ibn Reza’s journey reflects a rare blend of local grounding and global experience. From a familiar face in Bangladesh’s television landscape to a creative professional working across major international studios, he has steadily expanded his craft both in front of and behind the camera. He has been affiliated with prominent Hollywood-linked studios such as Bardel Animation, MPC, Method Studios, and Sony Pictures Imageworks, working across animation and high-end visual effects. As he continues to develop his own feature projects, Reza brings a perspective shaped by both local storytelling traditions and the global film industry. In an exclusive interview with Cut to Cinema, conducted by Md Rabbi Islam, he reflects on his journey, craft, and future cinematic ambitions.

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What is the biggest difference between how the public imagines Hollywood life and the daily reality of working on a film?

The biggest difference would be how hard you have to work for it. On an average we work at least 10 hours days. And during crunch time it goes from 10-12 hours and often includes weekend work. It gets really stressful, really crunchy, and that’s what people don’t see. They see the glamour, the fun, the excitement but they don’t always see how things are cooking behind the curtain and behind the curtain is its very hard work. It's very routine work and trying to maintain a very steep schedule.

Looking at the industry today, especially with the rise of OTT platforms and young directors, what makes you feel the most hopeful about the future of Bangladeshi cinema?

I see the interest in the young people to be specialized in various fields of cinema. There are young filmmakers who wants to be producers, screenwriters, production designers, choreographer, cinematographer, editor, sound designer colorist etc. And that is truly inspiring. Filmmaking is a is an art where you need a wide range of people coming together with different specialties. There used to be a time in Bangla cinema where that was not the case. There used to be people putting on multiple hats and therefore not quite achieving the level of expertise that was needed to get the best possible results. But nowadays, there are a lot of young filmmakers who are really focusing on the part of filmmaking which they find most exciting. They are training themselves in that discipline of the filmmaking and teaming up with the other likeminded people from other disciplines to create something wonderful. That's why more and more Bangladeshi cinema are gaining internal recognition.

In your view, what are the vital shortcomings or problems that currently stops the Bangladeshi film industry from growing and becoming more professional?

Still shortcomings of Bangladeshi film industry would be 3 folds. #1, lack of vision. By that I mean the lack of long term planning, investments, inability to see ourselves in 10 years 20 years 30 years. #2, lack of infrastructure. We don't have good sound stages, we still severely lack in equipment in both production and post production phases. And #3 would be support from both government and private sectors. Sadly the investment has not been significantly bigger even with all these OTT platform to make world class content.

Since you have so much global experience, what are your best suggestions for a beginner in Bangladesh who is trying to start a career in film or animation?

Nowadays there’s no excuse for not to make films. Our phones have much more powerful cameras than any cameras 20 years ago. We have all the tutorials we need to learn things online. So, you should always try to make something. That gives good practice, confidence and you learn a lot along the way. And maybe if you put it out there on YouTube, TikTok or Reels, you'll build an audience. So, when you end up making something big, you'll have the support. The other things that you can do are, watch a lot of cinemas, read about cinema, read scripts, focus on stories as that is the most important element of filmmaking. You take your learnings and apply in making films that are worthy to go to festivals. When you do well in the festival circuits, hopefully that will open the door for you both in Bangladesh and in abroad.