If you have ever opened Chorki to watch a film, a series, or one of its award winning originals, you have used a platform built and led by an EWU alumnus. What makes his story unusual is that he never trained to be a filmmaker at all. He trained to be an engineer.
Redoan Rony was born on October 20, 1983, in Pabna, the eldest of four siblings, to a father who taught at a college and a mother who taught at a local school. After completing his HSC at Rajshahi New Government Degree College, he enrolled at East West University to study Computer Science and Engineering, graduating in 2007.
But somewhere in the middle of writing code and solving assignments, something else pulled at him. In 2004, while still an undergraduate CSE student, Rony joined the Chabial group, a collective of emerging filmmakers led by acclaimed director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki. His first real work in the industry was on a serial called "69," which aired on Channel i. A year later, in 2005, while still enrolled at EWU, he directed his very first television movie, "Urojahaj." He was building an entire second career before he had even finished his first degree.
After graduating, there was no looking back. He went on to create and direct two of the most beloved television series in Bangladesh, Housefull (2008) and FnF (2010), shows that became staples of an entire generation's television habits. In 2012, he made his feature film directorial debut with "Chorabali," a thriller that went on to win five Bangladesh National Film Awards, including Best Dialogue, awarded to Rony himself.
Over the following decade, Rony continued to direct acclaimed television and web content, picking up honors including multiple Meril-Prothom Alo Awards and CJFB Performance Awards along the way, while also founding his own production house, Popcorn Entertainment.
Then, in 2021, he took on a role far bigger than any single film or series. Rony became CEO of Chorki, Bangladesh's leading Bengali language OTT streaming platform, launched that same year. In an interview reflecting on the decision, he explained a big part of his motivation plainly: foreign platforms like Netflix were already earning significant revenue from Bangladeshi audiences, and he believed local stories deserved a local home built to compete on the same level.
Under his leadership, Chorki has grown into a genuine industry force, surpassing 1 billion watch hours and attracting more than 30 million users by 2025, while producing original films and series that have traveled to international festivals including Busan and Rotterdam.
None of it started with a film camera. It started with a CSE student at EWU.
