Filmmaker Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury’s movie Dear Maa is headed for what distributors have touted as the widest-ever international rollout for a Bengali film in North America — a move aimed at launching an Oscar campaign for the relationship drama starring Jaya Ahsan.

Also starring Chandan Roy Sanyal, Saswata Chatterjee and Anubha Fatehpuria, Dear Maa will release in over 50 theatres across the United States and Canada, including mainstream cinema chains — a first for a film from Tollywood on such a scale — on August 8.

“We are excited that our film is releasing in North America on such a grand scale. The response we have received for the film so far is overwhelming. Although our film released simultaneously with a Hindi film that turned out to be a box-office juggernaut, we held on to our ground,” Aniruddha told The Telegraph Online.

“For films like Dear Maa, the interest in the audience grows with time. And we are hopeful we will continue to perform well,” he added.

Dear Maa is slated to release simultaneously in over 30 cities, including New York, Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver and Chicago, said the distributors.

Distribution for the film in North America is being handled by Bioskope Films, who are backing what they describe as a game-changing release for Bengali cinema overseas.

“Never before has a Bengali film seen such a wide international rollout,” Raj Hameed of Bioskope Films said.

Naushaba Rubna Rashid added, “The market for Bengali films has increased in the last few years. This is our 51st film distribution, and we want to reach out to the younger audience as well with this film. We want to inculcate a habit of theatrical movie viewing.”

Raj, a surgeon, and Rubna, an investment banker, are also targeting the non-Bengali diaspora, especially indie film lovers in the US who have the habit of watching “films with subtitles”.

“We are eyeing to meet the eligibility criteria for an Oscar run with this release strategy. In our eight-year journey in film distribution, we have only tried that with one other film, Dostojee,” Raj said.

Dear Maa revolves around the disappearance of a young girl named Sohini. Her stepmother (played by Jaya Ahsan) lodges a police complaint, leading to a citywide manhunt. During the investigation it is revealed that Sohini shared a fractured relationship with her stepmother. While Jaya’s character wanted to embrace Sohini as her own daughter, the latter refused to accept her overtures.