Silent boom in Bangladesh Cartoon Industry

Nashid Mahjabeen | Published: April 16, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Rafiqun Nabi made Tokai the most loved cartoon character of Bangladesh - Collected

Who doesn't remember Tokai- the bald headed, pot-bellied, innocent looking yet cunning young boy? Created by Famous Cartoonist Rafiqun Nabi, Tokai is the longest survived cartoon character of Bangladesh. Tokai has a knack for telling simple yet painful truth and always points out at hypocrisy and inhumanity. By reflecting his thoughts about the peculiarity of Bangladeshi society in his witty manner, Rafiqun Nabi made Tokai the most loved cartoon character of Bangladesh.
Cartoon has played a very strong role in our culture, especially in the political scenario. Caricatures and cartoons depicted our liberation war and language movement. Till now we see cartoon plays its own vital role in portraying social and political loopholes of ours. A big inspiration during our liberation war was a caricature of Yahia Khan drawn by none other than Quamrul Hassan and that caption "This animal has to be killed- eijanowarta hotta kortehobe" - was a simple but powerful one to portray the genocide ordered by Yahia .
Rafiqun Nabi, Ahsan Habib, Shisir Bhattacharjee--- they are the legends in the history of Bangladeshi Cartoon Community. Rafiqun Nabi is mostly famous for his cartoon character Tokai. Ahsan Habib is eminent as the editor of Unmad. Unmad being the first satire magazine in Bangladesh running from early 1980s till now is the birthplace of many upcoming cartoonists of these days. Shishir Bhattacharjee is best known to a mass audience as a political cartoonist. His style as a political caricaturist has now given birth to a new generation of illustrators who follow him.
Not long ago, most of the artists were reluctant to even accept cartoons as a form of art, however, now the scenario is different. Cartoonists are more organised now than they ever were. In January 2011, Bangladesh Cartoonist Association (BANCARAS) was established. The idea behind such an association was to connect the cartoonists of the country, to give them a common platform to share and nurture their ideas and work. Ahsan Habib, the legendary cartoonist who is working in this industry for the past forty years expresses that- "Cartoon has come a long way and now it is taken as a serious profession, there was a time when there was no cartoonist position in the newspapers whereas now no newspaper team is complete without a cartoonist and this post is equivalent to an assistant editor". BANCARAS's founding president Mehedi Haque also speaks in the same line and says that-"Now we see people labeling themselves as Cartoonists only and taking pride in it". Mehedi also adds that-"Now-a-days Youtube and the strong influence of social media has helped the cartoon industry to boom further as now anyone who is interested in illustrations is able to expose his or her work easily through Facebook."
Unmad Editor Ahsan Habib feels inspired as cartoonists in Bangladesh these days are trying all sorts of variations like political cartoon, comic strip etc. He says that -"There are several stages in cartoon which is like cartoon, comics, graphic novel, and animation movie; now the industry is in the stage of graphic novel." According to him the industry is in the right track and this industry is developing itself step by step.
Syed Rashad Imam Tanmoy - a political cartoonist for Dhaka Tribune has been featured internationally by many different organisations. While talking about Bangladeshi cartoons Tanmoy says, "There are not many people working in the cartoon sector, there is less competition and more opportunities."Tanmoy also says "To be a cartoonist right now it is not enough to just be good at drawing, but also a person should know how to promote and brand his or her own work in order to make their own way to be a pioneer in this emerging industry. "
Unmad's cartoonist and freelancer Nasreen Sultana Mitu says: "Being a cartoonist is quite different than other professions, as a person can become a doctor/engineer without having the knack for it, but a cartoonist must have passion otherwise it's impossible to become one". Nasreen's works are mostly political cartoons and caricatures. She further says "Political cartoon now holds a very solid position in any newspaper and sometimes it replaces photographs and gets front page exposure which she thinks is something to be inspired of." While I asked her about the struggles of a cartoonist, she pointed out families' are not yet supportive enough about helping their child to become a cartoonist.
Like Cartoonist Tanmoy we all are looking forward to the day when Bangladeshi cartoonists will collaborate with organisations and universities to create cartoon institutions and illustration departments to produce more illustrators, cartoonists, and concept artists to feed the demand of this growing industry.
The writer is an MBA (Marketing) student at University of Dhaka.