Bangladesh film industry must produce quality movies

Bengali cinema is passing through a tough and critical time. Cinema halls in the country have been reduced to half. Releasing new cinemas has also come down to half. The lack of patronization of government, non-government, influence of sky culture, unhealthy and dilapidated condition of cinema halls, not producing quality films, financial constraints, lack of modern technology, lack of filming education and training have been identified as the prime causes for miserable days of this industry. Films are not only a means of entertainment but also a great and very effective medium of education which many books cannot do. Next its prosperity goes with economic development as well.  

'Mukh and Mukhush,' the first film of the country, was released 58 years ago in 1956. Since then 2,905 films were released till 2013. Releasing films got increased and in 2005, some 100 films were released. From 2005 it started to witness a sluggish trend and in 2013, only 45 films were produced. The situation has got back to that of four decades ago. The same mundane formulaic stories had taken over the industry. A major breakthrough is required. Someone must break the norm and bring fresh outlook to films that will present a better quality of action; stunts and effects that would make the films stand out from the rest. Movies must be highly entertaining as well as educative; otherwise spectators would not come to the cinema halls. They will satisfy their needs by buying CDs and watching Bollywood movies. And this is what is actually going on now.

After the independence the decades of seventies and eighties witnessed the golden time of film industry. There were 1,200 cinema halls in the country and only in Dhaka city there were 44 cinema halls .Since 2001 this number started to reduce and at present there are 500 cinema halls and out of them 100 halls are seasonal which remain closed almost all the year round. They are opened just on some occasions. In Dhaka city there are only 33 cinema halls now and in Chittagong only three cinema halls are in operation. From the perspective of the phenomenal decline of Hollywood in the late 1960s and early 1970s Fadiman (1973) contends that "Movie making is business which is at the same time an art and an industry." While producing a movie, producers and directors have clear idea on what factors will be dominating in that movie. Even without negating any of these factors and making a balance among the factors a director can make an outstanding movie. Bangladeshi film industry witnessed one man show after 1971. Situation worsened as there was lack of variation in stories, lack of innovation in other areas of movie making. People started to forget going to cinema halls to watch movies as the number of movie-goers was decreasing slowly after the death of Salman Shah. The cinema halls were shut down one after another. At last, despite the strong protest from directors-producers-actors, Bangladesh Cinema Hall Owners Association imported Indian Bangla movies to exhibit those in their halls. But this initiative went in vain.

With the emergence of some brilliant young directors especially Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, M A Jalil Ananta  who is both a producer and actor, Giasuddin Selim who produced Monpura, Nasiruddin Yousuff  who created Guerrilla and  Redoan Rony who made Chorabali, the film industry has somehow saved its life. Bangla movie experiences some benchmarks with completely different, wonderful stories, unprecedented cinematography and the phenomenal improvement in every technical side of movie making. Now time has come to arm the life of the film industry with "continuous re-engineering. We all know that a good producer is a good investor; a good director is a good manager and obviously a good marketer also. In order to be a successful director  proper planning, managing whole shooting unit, finishing all activities within a definite period of time and within definite amount of budget, developing a control system are the prerequisites. Understanding the phenomena of the film industry in a pragmatic way is significant to the people having stakes in the industry. Contemplating the learning of modern management and implementing latest marketing strategies in producing movies can play an influential role to develop the film industry of Bangladesh.

Developing a film institute is a crying need of this industry. The institute will produce talented directors, producers, actors and actresses. Sound, culture friendly, timely films can be produced which will exhibit relevant issues discussed at the present time. Films can be easily produced based on famous literary books of Bengali and English literature. Films can show the present day world politics, make the people know the rules of health and hygiene, teach traffic rules, crumbling religious faith of humans, teach us why girls' education is necessary, it can show us how rural and urban gap can be minimized. The entire gamut of human behaviour, social, political and international issues can be featured through the films. These diversified issues will definitely draw spectators from various fields and backgrounds removing the insecurity of meeting  financial loss. What do we see in our present day films? Just the same and known stories are used in a series of films. Even a simple and non-sensible man can also guess its course, turning point and ending very easily. Vulgarism and irrelevant entertaining scenes and similar kind of stories reign in the present day cinemas of Bangladesh which have lost the appeal of the audience almost totally. Twenty-first century films must be very promising, challenging, scientific, fully educative and critical thought provoking.

The writer is Program Manager: BRAC Education Program and Vice-President: Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA). Email: [email protected]