Film of Bangladesh

Bangladesh has a medium sized film industry that produces around 90 feature films annually and those films are screened in more than 800 theatres all over the country. Bangladesh had started producing ‘industry films’ from 1956 when it was the eastern part of Pakistan. But the earliest filmmaker of Bangladesh is Hiralal Sen who is a man from Manikganj, Bangladesh (the then East Bengal) and made Loumiere Brothers-like one-reelers in Kolkata at the end of 19th century and who can be considered even the fist filmmaker of Indian Sub-continent. From the very beginning, the film industry of Bangladesh had been producing films that blend art and commercial elements and flavors. Later, the art elements disappeared gradually and commercial elements grabbed the industry films totally.

Simultaneously in the mid 1980s a new stream of independent films of Bangladesh has been introduced to the mediascape of the country which is popularly known as alternative films, primarily which were short in length. Albeit limited in numbers and distribution, these independent films are accepted by the urban middle class viewers. Individual producers, TV channels and external sources are investing in the films of some reputed independent filmmakers. On the other hand, being branded as the films of ‘poor taste’, the industry films are not getting back their investments and struggling for their existence. Many cinema halls have been shut down and some others planning to as the business seems to be a loosing concern. While yet not financially profitable independent streams are still continuing to produce ‘good’ films. Zahir Raihan and Alamgir Kabir can be named as the most prominet filmmakers of 1960s and 1970s respectively. Salahuddin, Subhash Dutt, Amjad Hossain, Chashi Nazrul Islam are some other filmamers of early part of film history of Bangladesh though some of them are still continuing filmmaking. On the other hand Tareque Masud, Catherine Masud, Morshedul Islam, Tanvir Mokammel and Abu Sayeed are leading independent filmmakers of Bangladesh. Some eminent filmmakers from India also made films in Bangladesh. Ritwik Ghatak, Rajen Tarafdar, Goutom Ghosh, Basu Chaterjee are some names among them.

Some prominent films of Bangladesh are: Surjasnan (1962) by Salahuddin, Nadi O Nari (1965) by Sadeq Khan, Stop Genocide (1971) by Zahir Raihan, Ora Egaro Jon (1972) by Chashi Nazrul Islam, Dhire Bahe Meghna (1973) by Alamgir Kabir, Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (1973) by Ritwik Ghatak, Basundhara (1977) by Subhash Dutt, Golapi Akhon Traine (1978) by Amjad Hossain, Surjo Dighal Bari (1979) by Masihuddin Shaker and Sheikh Niamat Ali, Chaka (1993) by Morshedul Islam, Chitra Nadir Pare (1999) by Tanvir Mokammel, Matir Moina (2002) by Tareque Masud, Shankhonaad (2004) by Abu Sayeed.