Fading glory of BFDC

Movie-going is no longer a favourite pastime in Bangladesh. We no longer see a large number of people gathering in front of the cinema halls to buy tickets to watch their favourite films. Most of these halls often wear a deserted look. Gone are those days when there were more than 1,000 cinema halls across the country, and all of them used to see huge crowds every day. Now only 60-70 halls are in full operation. And their disappointing looks tell us everything about the sorry tale of our film industry. Once a profit-making venture, cinema halls are fighting an existential battle today. Business is bad these days. So, movie theatres are giving way to shopping malls, hotels or community centres.
The Bangladesh Film Development Corporation, which used to produce hit films one after another, is now struggling with many issues. It has now turned into a place for hosting film artistes' organisations. The BFDC-centric film industry is now dead. Instead of making quality films, this place has become a platform of gossiping. At present, the BFDC has nine shooting floors, and most of them are in a sorry state with almost no modern facilities. Moreover, most of the floors are used for shooting of television commercials and programmes. A complete overhaul of BFDC can only help this industry survive. So, we urge the authorities concerned to transform it into a well-designed multi-purpose film hub so that Bangladeshi audience no longer need to be dependent on foreign movies.

Ashikujaman Syed,
Research Assistant,
Bioinformatics Research Lab,
Center for Research Innovation and Development (CRID),
[email protected]