New book on Digital Cinema in Bangladesh

This book tried to investigate the potentials, trends and challenges of digital film in Bangladesh. The study has studied four digital films as cases to understand the digital film situation in Bangladesh. However, the theoretical notions by Walter Benjamin (1936) and Samira Makhmalbaf (2000) were instructive in guiding this study. According to their approach, new technological art medium always liberate and democratize art forms. Enthusiasts indicate that new filmmakers will embrace digital film as the preferred format and create a new cinema tradition in Bangladesh. Responding to that euphoria of technological liberty, this study has examined the potentials of digital cinema in Bangladesh, the trends of existing digital filmmaking practices and problems of digital cinema in Bangladesh. After in-depth analysis and discussion, this study suggests how to progress digital filmmaking practices in Bangladesh.

Lists of Content

Preface
1. Introduction
Film is Dead, Long Live Cinema
Analog versus Digital Technology
Defining Digital Cinema
Origin and Development of Digital Cinema
Digital Intermediate
Distribution and Exhibition
2. The Work of Art in the Age of
Digital Reproduction
Work of Art in the Digital Age

40 Years of Media Experiences in Bangladesh: A Critical Overview

As in other countries, journalism in Bangladesh, too, has experienced three phases. The first was initiated by the politicians, with the media being used as the voice of political parties or for serving political agendas though, for Bangladesh, it was serving the agendas of people also as the country was fighting for rights against West Pakistan central government in 1960s. With time, questions were raised against biased and political journalism and there was advocacy for objective and ethical journalism. Worldwide, behind the introduction of objective journalism, there was a contribution of journalism schools. Today is the age of corporate-owned journalism, a contemporary reality that is both global and local. There are differences in the objective and style of these three kinds of journalism.

Bangladesh as a nation turns 40 in 2011. In this article I will review the trends and developments of journalism in Bangladesh in the last four decades. I will also try to forecast here the trends of the news industry in the coming decade after which Bangladesh will be a 50-year-old nation.

Cinema(s) of Bengal(s)

Until 1956, Bengali cinema meant cinema made from Kolkata. It was a big industry within India since 1930s and Bengali Muslims from East Bengal were basically the consumers of the film. However, the international recognition of Satyajit Ray and artistic success of some other filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen from West Bengal, India had created a profound impact on the filmmakers of Bangladesh. The Dhaka-based first full length sound feature film Mukh O Mukhosh (The Face and the Mask) was made in 1956, just after the next year of the release of Pather Pachali by Satyajit Ray. The film industry of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), was established in 1957. One of the earlier film Ashia (1960), produced from BFDC and directed by Fateh Lohani was highly influenced by Pather Pachali. After the independence, the first internationally recognized film from Bangladesh, Suryo Dighal Bari (The Ominous House, 1979) by Masihuddin Shaker and Sheikh Niamat Ali was also influenced by Satyajit Ray’s neo-realist filmmaking style. The first film Dhire Bahe Meghna (Quiet Flows the River Meghna, 1973) by Alamgir Kabir – one important auteur of post-independence Bangladesh – was a co-production with India. He had cast several actors from India in most of his films. The three great filmmakers of West Bengal – Ray, Ghatak and Sen – all of them either born in East Bengal and later migrated to India after the partition in 1947 or their ancestors were born in East Bengal.

So the plight of partition, or the reminiscence of their homeland were the subjects of some of films by Ray, Ghatak and Sen. Ritwik Ghatak is one of them who never accepted the artificially created partition of India as well as partition of Bengal and he had always talked about the cultural unison of two Bengals.

Seminar: Cinema of Bangladesh: Re-reading Popular Culture and Construction of Identity

The Event

Date: 18 August, 2009, Tuesday, 10:30 am

Vanue: Senate Building, Dhaka University

Organized by: Dept. of Mass Communication and Journalism, University of Dhaka and Bangladesh Film Archive

Papers
1. “6 Song, 10 Fights and 1 Affair: Re-reading Bangla Cinema”
Presenter: Lotte Hoek, Lecturer, University of Amsterdam
2. “Construction of Identity in the Independent Films of Bangladesh”
Presenter: Fahmidul Haq, Assistant Professor, Mass Communication and Journalism, Dhaka University

Discussants
1. Manosh Chowdhury, Faculty Member, Anthropology Department, Jahangirnagar University
2. Matin Rahman, Filmmaker
3. Zahidur Rahim Anjan, President, Bangladesh Short Film Forum
4. Salimullah Khan, Writer

Abstracts

Presentation 1: “Six Songs, Ten Fights, One Love: Re-reading Bangladeshi Cinema”
By Lotte Hoek

In this paper, I argue that an understanding of popular cinema cannot rely solely on a reading of a film text. Instead, such a text must be placed in its production context and its technological environment before it can function as an object for social scientific enquiry. Currently, the analysis of popular Bangladeshi cinema lacks any thorough engagement with its production context. In this paper, I will highlight one part of the FDC production environment. On the basis of this I will suggest a possible way of re-reading popular Bangladeshi cinema by investigating the diegetic results of the lack of use of wild tracks in the FDC.

Presentation 2: “Construction of Identity in the Independent Films of Bangladesh”
By Fahmidul Haq

This paper tends to analyze how Bengali Muslim identity, the national identity of Bangladesh, is represented in selected independent films. The analysis finds independent cinema of Bangladesh as an influential cultural institution and as an ideal ‘system of representation’ it tries to ‘homogenize’ the nation through depicting Bengaliness, the ethno-linguistic identity approach, as the only identity approach of Bengali Muslims, and it suggests this preferred identity as progressive and modern and portrays Muslimness, the religious identity approach, as the ‘other’ identity which is or should be considered as non-progressive and primitive. As a part of homogenizing the ‘imagined community’, independent cinema widens the prevailing gap between the two conflicting identities – Bengaliness and Muslimness. The findings also suggest that to sustain the ethnic and cultural elements of Bengaliness on the screen, directors don’t hesitate to orientalize themselves to the global audience. The paper highlights and tries to establish popular religion, the syncretic identity approach within Bengali-Muslim identity, which is ignored in prevailing identity discourse in Bangladesh and it examines how this approach is dealt in the independent films.

BLACKOUT: A Vigourous-Bold-Experimental Story Without A Tale

A one-day-fine-arts-student and poet Tokon Thaakoor starts his journey in the premises of cinematography with Blackout. Not strictly a biography, though, it is a part of the same. He, here, himself apportioned into two, as does a bacterium; the two main protagonists Rafi and Madol are an artist and a poet respectively. In many way, they are identical with Thakoor- above thirty, unmarried, live on a garret (an attic), smitten with reverie-love-lust... all carnal desires. The way the poet (in the Blackout) is overwhelmed of his childhood, it seems, Thakoor is visualizing his autobiography. Though Blackout doesn’t show us the every details of an autobiography, it is certainly a documentation of a part of contemporary youth lifestyle and practice of dreamy obsession, the worse for intoxicating drug or liquor, unmet desire for sex. Specially, it is the documentation of artistry-love-lust of those fresh-blood youths, within a-some hundred yards between Dhaka Fine Arts Institute and Aziz Super Market, by whom the contemporary Dhaka-based art-culture-literature is being practiced and exercised. Rather the director didn’t follow the usual narrative of conventional documentary or feature-film; he went through the complex experimental course of metaphor-metaphysics in addition to animation. Probably, it is the Blackout presents before us with large-scale experimental relish ever in our country.

The prime criterion of this video fiction is its statelessness; self-perception dominates here as does in experimental short story. A used-to-viewer of simple narrative cinematography doesn’t feel ease here. This is rather an expression of feelings of this transition period youth- as a poetry, or as an artwork, partly revealed, the rest remains unrevealed. Blackout will definitely touch those young afflicted with creativity-love-lust-liquor-agony; also those non-young interested to realize the present-day youth. Others may refuse to accept Blackout, due partly to its unconventional complex type of presentation, and partly to its immoral (!) unaccustomed (!) commentary. Fortunately, it was not captured in celluloid; in that case, the scythe of the censor-board would be sharper. Here, in Blackout, an artist sketches a mature penis and calls it missile; masturbation contexts are there; character here is both homo- and hetero-sexual. Films released from FDC shows raw nudity, unreliably though; even then, those easily pass the censor-board. Nevertheless, undoubtedly, Blackout would be caught by the board.

Brick Lane: A Tale of Transformation of an Immigrant Woman

One can easily discover the thematic similarities between the film Brick Lane (2007) by British director Sarah Gavron and Paroma (1984) by the Indian director Aparna Sen. After serving her husband and caring for her children for several years, an ordinary housewife suddenly discovers that she has passed a large part of her life meaninglessly, not taking car of her own need. Of course, these feelings appear within herself after contact with a young man and she discovers how she has been deprived of the charms of life, how her mind and body have been dispossessed of heavenly happiness on Earth. Gradually, the late-thirties woman turns into a lover from a conventional housewife and feels like a young woman who has fallen in love for the first time. And most importantly, she becomes self-determined and self-asserting.

It is the first feature film by the documentary and short filmmaker Sarah Gavron. Though the title of the film is Brick Lane, adapted from the best selling novel of Monica Ali of the same title, you will not find the presence of Brick Lane or the Bangla Town, London much in the film. The storyline progresses as an indoor family drama.

Fahmidul Haq Talks on Mainstream Bangla Cinema in The Daily Star Weekend Magazine

Bangla Cinema: An Industry in Decay
By Kajalie Shehreen Islam
30 May, 2008

The theme and storyline of Bangla cinema has taken several shifts since the 1970s. Fahmidul Haq, an assistant professor at the department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University, says this shift ranges from social storytelling to high tone violence.
“The major genre of films made in the 1970s,” says Haq, “was social, particularly rural social life such as Lathial and Sujon Sokhi (1975) and Sareng Bou (1979). In the 1980s, the major genres were costume-fantasy, for example, Nagin (1980), Banjaran (1983) and Beder Meye Josna (1989) and action (Jony, 1983; Nasib, 1984). In the 1990s we saw two more genres: teen romance (Chandni, 1991; Keyamat Theke Keyamat, 1993) and violence (Danga, 1992; Ammajan, 1999). The present decade,” says Haq, “is wholly dominated by violent films with pornographic insertion (out of text hard core 'cut pieces' and within text soft pornography).”
The song and dance routine, according to Haq, who has co-authored the recently published book Bangladesher Chalochchitro Shilpo: Sangkote Janosangskriti (The Film Industry in Bangladesh: Popular Culture in Crisis) along with Dr. Gitiara Nasreen, has not changed over the years but the nature of visualisation has. “Once, songs in Bangla films were used as a romantic expression of the protagonists and became very popular among the audience. But in recent times, they have been used as spectacles of sexually explicit materials with appealing dance.” After the drive of the special task force led by RAB in late 2007, however, Haq says that the making of so-called vulgar films (which are actually violent films with vulgar songs) has stopped. With people expressing their satisfaction about the retrieved cine environment, some directors have taken up making social films again which are drawing an audience.
Technology and cinematic techniques in Bangla cinema have also deteriorated. With the decline of the industry since the 1980s, the FDC studios and cinema halls have not been renovated or updated with the latest technologies, rather, their condition has worsened. “Very recently, a digital lab has been incorporated in the FDC and a few theatres in the capital have introduced DTS technology,” says Haq, “but we are yet to see the effects of new technology established in FDC.”
According to Haq, there have been no auteurs in recent years as there were in the1960s and 1970s such as Zahir Raihan, Alamgir Kabir, Salauddin, Subhash Dutt and Amjad Hossain, and so more decline in terms of cinematic technique and representation.
The stream of independent or alternative films, however, has improved over the years and achieved international recognition. “But these films are not viewed by the broader audience of the country,” says Haq. “The target audience of these films are international film festivals and the advanced and literate audiences of Dhaka. Some of the films produced by TV channels are enchained in TV premieres.” The shutting down of prominent theatres indicates the decline of the cine business, says Haq.
Just the phrase “Bangla cinema” evokes images of brutal violence and vulgarity, but how big a problem are they really? According to Fahmidul Haq, neither violence nor vulgarity are problems if films are well-made and refers to many critically acclaimed Hollywood and Bollywood films with violent and sexual content. In Bangladesh, however, the problem is that such films have no grading or ratings.
“During our research, we found that 22.36% of the audience were adolescents with no entertainment options other than going to the movies. This is where the problem lies,” Haq points out. Other than that, he believes that the worries of middle class civil society around only the vulgarity of Bangla cinema is more an expression of religion-driven morality and “sympathy from a better class” towards the lower class “rickshawala” audience. The main problem, he thinks, lies elsewhere, in the total decline of cinema in terms of storyline, cinematic technique and lack of originality.
Most mainstream filmmakers today give the audience as an excuse for their work, claiming to be giving viewers what they want. This is a largely false claim, however, seeing as that the audience, especially those living in peripheral towns who do not even have access to television, have little choice and so go for whatever is offered, becoming a sort of captive audience of such films. While working on their book, Dr. Gitiara Nasreen and Fahmidul Haq conducted an audience survey in which they found that a large part of the audience (37%) wanted to watch social films or films that could be enjoyed with the family. Some of them (24%) wanted films with good stories. Though women comprised a large part of the audience of Bangla cinema in the past, today, they hardly ever go to theatres due to the content of the films themselves as well as the environment of the cinema halls.
The cost of making a film ranges from 50 and 80 lakh takas, depending on the scale and grandeur of the song-and-dance routines. Though the exact profit margins for these films are unknown, according to the FDC website, the organisation paid Tk. 6 lakh 38 thousand in revenues to the government in 2004-2005.
As with everything, the government has a major role to play in the development of the film industry in Bangladesh and this includes infra-structural development. “The government never had a plan to nurture the popular media,” claims Fahmidul Haq. “Its role should not be only to collect taxes or even just prevent vulgarity. It has to have a plan and policy to improve the overall situation of the sector.” A film can overcome language barriers and play a vital role in society through entertainment and teaching, says Haq. “The government must consider cinema an important aspect of popular culture and medium of entertainment.”
Watching films on a big screen should be a completely different experience from watching them at home, believes Haq, who is currently doing his doctorate abroad in Cinema Studies. He suggests a number of ways in which this can be done -- by establishing cineplexes in major towns and introducing the latest cine technologies, by supporting filmmakers through regular grants, producing human resources through the establishment of a film institute, film centres and a film archive.
Before, a good story was enough for the success of a film, but now, with so many entertainment options, the audience want more. "You have to project a colourful movie in a cool theatre with good décor, widescreen and Dolby digital facilities," says Haq. "You have to provide the audience with visual pleasure, recreating the aura of film watching, making the audience think it's different, larger than life. You have to alter TV viewers to movie goers, and that is a big challenge.”
Haq also believes that in this day and age, with the rising popularity and availability of media content on the internet, censorship is a dying concept and should be liberalised. “The government has to respect the freedom of expression of the creator. Censorship means controlling creativity. Since the 1960s, countries have been liberalising censorship. The questions of sex, violence, religion or morality can be easily met by a grading system.” Many countries have boards but to certify or register films, not to censor them, and are even known as film certification boards, says Haq.
“In our country, the Film Censor Board never worked as it should have,” says Haq. “It was used to pass bad ones and act as an obstacle for good films. The corruption of some boards was an open secret. The Censor Board was a total failure in controlling so-called vulgarity, which is considered to be the board's prime duty.”
An improvement in the quality of films accompanied by the latest technology and a good environment in theatres can bring people back to cinema halls. “You have to make filmmaking difficult (in a positive sense) for directors and producers which requires extensive preparation,” says Fahmidul Haq. Instead of making several low-budget films, make fewer but better films with the same budget, export them. “There is a Bangladeshi audience in many parts of the world, you just have to explore the world market and provide quality films for them.”

Book Review> Film Industry of Bangladesh: Popular Culture in Crisis

Published On: 2008-05-03
Star Books Review
The rise and steady decline of our cinema
Nazma Yeasmeen Haq recommends a scholarly work on movies to readers

Although not unprecedented, yet Bangladesher Cholochitro Shilpo assuredly is rather unique in the sense of its being the product of a research work carried out systematically and that in turn attains academic standard as a thesis. The book raises a number of questions, diagnoses the malaise that has been eating into the vitals of our film industry, in particular since the 1980s. Once the diagnosis is made correctly, etiology is determined and thus very confidently the writers come up with a prescription to be administered to cure the ills of the disease prevalent in the films that are there.

The factors that are inextricably related to the making of a film that ideally ought to cater to the taste of a wide spectrum of viewers, thus qualifying it to be of a popular genre, have very ably been dealt with by the authors. One can accomplish this only when one has a full grasp of the subject one is involved with. Only those with an intention of delivering things beneficial to society can be so succinct and painstaking in their endeavour, as we see the authors progress in their work. Trying to mend or fill a cavernous hole in our filmdom that has apparently come to exist demands much tenacity on the part of its doers. As the writers themselves have stated, coming back to trends that are healthy in essence might, although they can be considered as an achievement, nevertheless cause a feeling of a sense of complacency about it that must not be there in the right frame of one's mind. That is because it would only mean moving to zero from a minus from where it is a very long way to reach the positive. This assertion tells us, the readers, about the abyss we are in in terms of having access to one of the vital social outlets of recreation in our lives.

The authors have been much methodical in tracing the history of film making in this part of our region through a synoptic treatment of it in a chronological order, which is very useful to a reader to check for quick reference. As it is, in these days of haste, most people go for reading things that are presented in a concise form and exactly this is fulfilled by this particular presentation. One gets a very clear view of the growth and development of films both in terms of their quality, quantity and genre along with the proceedings of the chapters that are arranged as clapstick 1 to clapstick 7. Designating the chapters with terminologies of film thus keeps reminding one of what the book deals with that often transforms it into a film in print.

The authors have applied primarily a methodology of survey research to collect data for their purpose. Content analyses supplemented by audience analysis have revealed the quality of the content of three films of the present time that are absolutely devoid of any sense of purpose, let alone some residual sense of beauty which is part and parcel of any creative work. To a sensible person such a job is truly a product of empty-headed people who think that they can make viewers consume whatever they feed them. This myth that keeps film makers engulfed in their daydreams has been altogether dispelled by analysing the responses of the audience statistically. Demand for a good film has been indicated even by people from lower income groups. Such viewers are more often than not taken as primary consumers of low quality films. The indication of the authors regarding this make-believe perception of the film makers is most palpable in their strongly worded utterances.

The latter part of the book deals elaborately with the erosion that has consciously been brought about by many associated with the film industry. A regression of a vicious nature thus has taken place, creating an abyss. When the authors wistfully talk about the lost glory of cinemas, one feels a kind of frustration knowing that there was once a time when the cinema hall was not only a centre for entertainment but also a hub for social interaction in a community.

The most vital lesson one learns by going through this book is that the audience by and large demand good films the same way they ask for other amenities of life since wholesome entertainment is part of life, society and our culture. Dedicating this very recently published book to the memory of the unforgettable Hiralal Sen is laudable, although his production is not recognised as the first film of Bangladesh owing to some debatable issues.

Since the focus of the book is on the intensity of decay in popular culture in terms of film making, the prescriptive approach contained in the last chapter is most useful as a set of recommendations. To highlight the contrast between present day films and quality films of yesteryears, the authors could have incorporated content analysis of a couple of films from the latter. Also the photo frame on the front cover page could have had a display of the same to draw a distinction between these two classes of films rather than having all from a bunch of incredulous ones. This would have been more in keeping with the sub-title of the book.

We wholeheartedly agree with the authors that we too love to see films and therefore would like to see how early things can be put back on the right track. Let us raise a slogan echoing the authors that we demand healthy entertainment through films.

Nazma Yeasmeen Haq is a critic and Principal, Radiant International School, Dhaka .

A New Book on Popular Cinema of Bangladesh

A new research based book on popular cinema of Bangladesh by Giti Ara Nasreen and Fahmidul Haq has been published from Shrabon Prokashoni in the Ekushey Bookfair, February 2008. The book is now available at Shrabon's showroom at Shahbag book market.

For an impression, here are some relevant information:

Title: Bangladesher Chalochchitro Shilpo: Sangkote Janosangskriti
(The Film Industry of Bangladesh: Popular Culture in Crisis)
Authors: Giti Ara Nasreen and Fahmidul Haq
Publisher: Shrabon Prokashoni
Cover: Robin Ahsan
Number of Pages: 186
Price: BDT 200

Lists of Contents

Acknowledgement

Clapstick 1
Wide Angel: Film as Popular Culture

Clapstick 2
Flashback: The History of Film of Bangladesh (1996-1999)

Clapstick 3
Zoom-in: Contemporary Trends of Film Industry

Clapstick 4
Slow Motion: Government, Censor Board and Film of Bangladesh

Clapstick 5
Mise-en-scene: Textual Analysis--What Do Public Swallow?

Clapstick 6
Close-up: The Face of the Audience and the Theatres

Clapstick 7
Deep Focus: Solution Formula of the Crisis

End Notes, References of Stills and References

Mass Media in Bangladesh: A Brief Overview

After 1990, in a changed global economic and political situation, the scenario of Bangladeshi media was also changed as consistent with global and regional media scenario. Globalization demands market liberalization along with the liberalization of media as well. In that process, though the government of Bangladesh always heavily controlled the state owned radio and television channels but, in the early 90s, they gave permission to broadcast the satellite channels commercially. As a result, Bangladeshi audience was flooded by immense of foreign television channels, which had only the experience of Bangladesh Television (BTV) before 1990s.

The electronic media of Bangladesh is expansive at the moment. Now there are eight private satellite channels, which broadcast entertainment programs and news, in general. There are two FM radio channels, major programs of which are music and news. In media discourse, community radio is a much-talked issue but the government is yet to give permission of any community radio. According to the National Media Survey (NMS) in 1998, the national reach of the various media was radio 39%, television 42%, newspapers/magazines 15%, and cinema 17%. (Chowdhury, 2003: 107)

Just after the landmark of 1990, there was a ‘boom’ of print media. In 1990, the beginning of globalization and ending of direct and indirect military rule, of more than one decade, occurred simultaneously. On December 6, 1990, the first Caretaker Government, which was formed to arrange a free and fair election in the process of democratization, withdrew a newspaper control regulation from Special Powers Act, 1974. With this step, obtaining registration for a newspaper became easier. In a country of 130 millions of people, though only about 1.3 million of copies of newspapers are sold daily, there were 300 dailies in Bangladesh at the end of the millennium. (BCDJC, 2003: 4) For electronic media, there was one TV and another radio channel owned by the government. But for print media, it is an all-private-ownership show, mostly by corporate companies, which replaced politicians.

According to NMS in 1998, 15% of population read newspaper at least once a week. But newspaper reading is still an urban habit. Around half of city dwellers (44%) read newspapers against 10% in rural areas. (Chowdhury, 2003: 107) According to a study conducted by the Press Institute of Bangladesh in 1994, the findings of which were released in 1998, only 12% of the readerships consider newspapers to be credible and about 55% believe that there is a freedom of expression. The factors here include government intervention, pre-censorship, political pressure, obstacles put forward by different quarters, lack of neutral outlook and dependence of newspapers on government advertisements. (Rahman and Ahmed, 2004)

Although Article 39 (2) of Bangladesh constitution guarantees (a) the right of every citizen to freedom of speech and expression and (b) freedom of the press, there are 20 constraining laws, including Official Secrets Act, designed to repress freedom of expression. The specific areas of restrictions are related to the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence. After the strong demand of journalists and civil society, the government has decided to introduce Right to Information Act in 2007.

However, since 1990, Bangladeshi newspapers enjoy moderate level of press freedom as per the government control is concerned. But the electronic media is deprived of enjoying that freedom. Not only the state owned BTV or Bangladesh Betar (the radio channel), private TV channels are also under close supervision of the government. In 2007, the military backed present Caretaker Government, which took power on January 11, 2007 after series of political violence, ruled a state of emergency and the media went again under control and lost the gained freedom.

Press freedom in Bangladesh is also restrained by physical harassment of journalists in Bangladesh. Six journalists were killed and 282 injured, mostly the local reporters, in attacks across the country in three years till December 2003. (Rahman, 2004: 7) According to a study by Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF), Bangladesh’s position is the 118th in terms of press freedom and it is because ‘political parties constantly endanger the lives of journalists’. (Rahman, 2004: 8) The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on March 5, 2004 described Bangladesh as the most violent country for newspersons in Asia. (Rahman, 2004: 71) Besides governmental control by laws and strict watch and physical harassment against journalists, corporate control by advertising and other media business related matters, restricts media to perform proper journalism.

Reference

Chowdhury, Afsan (2004). Media in Times of Crisis: National and International Issues. Shrabon. Dhaka.
Rahman, Golam and Ahmed, Helal Uddin (2004). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh. Multimedia CD. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Dhaka.
BCDJC (Bangladesh Centre For Development, Journalism and Communication) (2003); Madhyam (Bangladesh Media Directory); BCDJC; Dhaka.
Rahman, Mahfuzur (2004). The State of Media in Bangladesh. News Network. Dhaka.