Shafayat Hossain, who portrayed "Shoreef," made his acting debut while also serving as Line Producer for Probashi. Initially hesitant to take on a leading role, Shafayat shared Sayef 's vision for a gritty Bengali- language crime thriller set in NYC's underbelly, driven by their shared love for Scorsese's gangster films , bombay flicks & Bangla teli crime drama from mid 90’s.

Their collaboration began unexpectedly on a rainy night in 2018 when Shafayat, on his way to a graveyard shift as a security guard, spotted Sayef an old friend from grade school at a local fried chicken joint. Discovering that Sayef had recently quit his job to pursue filmmaking, Shafayat was inspired to join the project, marking the start of production ofProbashi.