Filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki has dismissed online rumours of a separation from actress Nusrat Imrose Tisha, describing the claims as baseless, while alleging that a Bangladeshi cybercrime group celebrated the hacking of his Facebook account.

Farooki, a former culture affairs adviser to the interim government, told bdnews24.com that he discovered on Saturday morning that his account had been targeted and deactivated. He said he had screenshots of online groups allegedly celebrating the incident and urged law enforcement agencies to take action.

“I woke up in the morning and saw what had happened. They tried to hack my account and deactivated it. A Bangladeshi cybercrime group is celebrating this in different groups. I have screenshots,” he said. “Law enforcement agencies need to be active on these matters. This is an issue of citizens’ safety.”

Responding to reports of a possible separation from Tisha circulating online and in some media outlets, Farooki said he had neither the time nor the interest to engage with the claims.

“I have no time to talk about that news, and no interest. There is no basis to any of this. I have no time to listen to such nonsense,” he said.

He also dismissed social media discussions about his alleged property ownership in Australia and Switzerland, describing them as propaganda and urging people to focus on his work.

“The most amusing thing is the idea that someone owns a house in Australia or Switzerland. Anyone can find that with a search. This kind of propaganda about me has surfaced before,” he said. “Instead of getting caught up in these irrelevant controversies, write about my work.”

Farooki said he had completed two commercials, one for a software company and another for a building materials company, with shoots in Dhaka, Mymensingh and South Korea. He is preparing to shoot a third commercial featuring a celebrity, whose identity he said he might reveal within a day.

The filmmaker is also developing two feature films. One is a love story tentatively titled To Hell, With Love, which explores changing ideas of romance among Generation Z.

“It is a love story, not a thriller. The definition of love is changing for the new generation. I am trying to capture these new definitions of love and understand what love looks like for Gen Z,” he said, adding that the script was almost complete.

His second project has a political backdrop and is also nearing completion. Farooki said he had yet to decide which film would go into production first.

Farooki and Tisha married on 16 July 2010. Their daughter, Ilham Nusrat Farooki, was born in 2022.

Tisha has appeared in television dramas and films including Third Person Singular Number, Television, Ostitto, Doob, Halda, Mayaboti and Phagun Haway. She won National Film Awards for Best Actress for her performances in Halda, directed by Tauquir Ahmed, and Ostitto, directed by Anonno Mamun.

Farooki began making films in 1999. Under the Chabial banner, he directed single-episode and serial dramas including Spartacus ’71, Ekannoborti, 69 and 420. His feature films include Bachelor, Made in Bangladesh, Third Person Singular Number, Television and Doob.

His latest feature film, 840: Democracy Private Limited, was released in 2024.