Kolkata, March 19, 2017: Over 70 unique artists from the two neighbouring countries -India and Bangladesh performed the popular Arabian Nights tale, 'Alibaba and forty thieves' in a peculiar 3D presentation in Kolkata city.

"The joint production has the feel of a Broadway musical and an effort to bring back fantasy element in our lives." said Shamim Ara Nipa, the popular Bangladeshi stage actor, who portrayed the role of Marjina.

Nipa said she was a little anxious about the response of the Kolkata audience to the show, but as soon as the show got over they found there was no discrepancy between Dhaka, Chittagong, Kolkata. "Some works are universal," she remarked.

"We have done several dance productions based on Tagore's works as well as works of Kazi Nazrul Islam and folk culture. Art can't have boundaries, our icons can't be split by boundaries," she further added.

Shibli Mohammed of the Srishti troupe in Bangladesh cited, "It is a huge production which incurred Rs 40 lakh to mount it."

Shibli, who impersonated Alibaba in the play said,"We had done the rehearsal for three months in Dhaka where Sukalyan, a dear friend of ours, also participated with his own group."

Sukalyan, who portrayed Kashem, is the founder of Sukalyann D Entourage dance troupe, which represented the Indian side. He had also conceptualized the whole thing with Nipa and Shibli.

Prominent Bengali singers Nachiketa Chakraborty, Srikanto Acharya, Lopamudra Mitra, Jayati Chakraborty and Raghab Chatterjee sang for the production. "Happy to do something different from the beaten track," Srikanto remarked.

– Prepared by Naina Mishra of Newsgram, Twitter: Nainamishr94