ncreasing audience of local movies

FE Team | Published: July 24, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

The number of movie-goers is on the rise, which a good piece of news for people and movie-makers alike. The middle class that constituted the bulk of movie-goers in the sixties and seventies of the last century, declined later and cinema Halls became almost empty during the show times. It is heartening that the audience for Bangla Movie is increasing and nowadays and the middle class people are also going to the theatres to watch those.
I tried to watch a Bangla movie during the recent Eid Holidays but failed twice to manage a ticket for myself and my family as the shows were totally houseful. This indicates that the standard of Bangla movies is definitely improving along with the quality of making. Until recently, the producers and directors were making carbon copies of foreign movies totally unrelated to our life and culture and the viewers started showing a withdrawal syndrome. When people can easily watch movies depicting our everyday life, our thinking and attitudes, and dreams and disappointments on TV and Youtubes, they are not likely to take the trouble to go to movie theatres to watch inefficiently carbon copies of foreign films. There has definitely been a dearth of well made movies in our country that took the viewers away from theatres. That is why we saw the number of cinema halls declining dramatically during the last few decades. Many of the cinema halls have been transformed into glittering shopping malls as the owners found it more lucrative and profit making venture. The atmosphere around and inside most of such facilities is below the mark especially those which are situated in the small towns. Once Bangla Movie was the principal entertainment for the people, but it lost its old glory due to unholy design of a group of producers and makers. We all hope the golden days of Bangla cinema will return and movie theatres shall again be the centres of cultural activities around the country along with stage dramas and musical shows.

Sajjad Hossain
Gulshan, Dhaka