Cinema hall closure

I was going through a newspaper report that read a cinema hall in Rajshahi named "Upohar" is going to be shut down and a multistoried market will be built there. In Dhaka city, we see the same scenario. Many halls like the Moon Cinema, Star, Shabistan, Gulistan etc have been shut. Our movie industry is suffering due to lack of quality cinema halls or movie theatres. Many people think that if we import Indian movies, it will harm our local movie industry. But we forget that our movie industry will not stay alive if the number of the cinema halls continue decreasing. The middle-class people do not go to watch Bangladeshi movies as most of the Bangladeshi movies are poor copy versions of Indian movies. Of course, we have some "Aynabaji" and "Pora mon"-like good movies, but those are few and far between. If we can watch the popular and big-budget quality movies on Youtube or Netflix, why should one take the trouble of watching Bangladeshi movie in theatres? I think, if the Indian movies are released in Bangladesh, it will help the theater owners make some profit, which may help increase the number of cinema halls. The government can impose tax to the tune of 20 per cent or so on the Indian/foreign movies and invest it in the development of our movie industry. Otherwise, Bangladeshi movie industry may soon face a crisis of movie theatres to run local movies. Even in Pakistan, Indian movies are released regularly and it is not harming their movie industry. We cannot spoon-feed our film industry if it doesn't improve overall standard.

Nadim Javed

Tejgaon, Dhaka