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Bangladesh is in the news these days after Sheikh Hasina resigned from the post of Prime Minister. Sheikh Hasina is the person who paved the way for the release of Hindi films in Bangladesh. Actually, Bangladesh had banned the release of Indian films in 1971.
Sheikh Hasina lifted this ban in 2023 because the film industry there was in a very bad condition. Shahrukh Khan's film 'Pathan' was the first film to be released in Bangladesh 51 years after the ban was lifted.
Talking about the Bangladeshi film industry, it is called Dhallywood. The film capital of this industry is Dhaka. While an average of 2000 films are made every year in India, only 70-100 films are made in Bangladesh in a year.
In the 90s, every film there used to be a copy of a Hindi film. After the year 2000, to attract the audience to the theatres, filmmakers also resorted to pornographic films, due to which the film industry was marginalized and has not yet recovered from it.
Let us know what ups and downs the Bangladesh film industry has gone through so far…
More than 1000 theaters have closed in Bangladesh
After independence in 1972, the government of Bangladesh decided that it would not allow any foreign film to be screened in the country. The logic behind the government's decision was that this would promote local films there. However, this decision backfired.
During the 80s and 90s, Bangladesh could not make films that could entertain the audience. During that period, copying was in full swing in Dhallywood. Almost every second film was copied from a Hindi film. The producers just wanted Bengali films to continue running in theatres.
In the 90s, there were around 1,500 cinema halls in Bangladesh, but due to the clichéd Bengali films, the audience stopped going to theatres.
According to a report by Money Control, more than 1000 theatres have been closed in Bangladesh for the last 20 years. Most of the cinema hall owners have converted their theatres into shopping centres or apartments. In such a situation, by the year 2000, the makers were faced with the problem of how to attract the attention of the public towards the films.
In his three-year film career, Salman Shah worked in 27 films.
When Bangladesh's first superstar committed suicide
After 1993, Bangladeshi film industry got a chance to recover through film star Salman Shah. Salman's debut film was 'Keemat Theke Keemat' which was a remake of the Hindi film 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak'. The film was a superhit and Salman shone. After this, he got many back to back films. In 1994, his 6 films were released, most of which proved to be hits. Soon Salman started being called the first superstar of Bangladeshi films.
His craze among fans was tremendous and Salman was the only one who had the power to pull the audience to the theatres. Salman was known as the 'Prince of Dhallywood' among his fans. In 1996, nine of his films were released back to back, which brought life back to the theatres.
Then Salman Shah died under suspicious circumstances at the age of only 24. His body was found hanging from the fan in his apartment. Police investigation revealed that Shah had committed suicide.
Pornographic films ruined the film industry
After Salman Shah's death, the audience became disillusioned with cinema halls. By the year 2000, theatre owners and producers adopted cheap tactics which led to the downfall of Bangladeshi cinema. Actually, the makers tried to attract the attention of the audience through pornographic films. This was called the 'Cut Piece Era' in the history of Bangladeshi cinema which destroyed the film industry.
Vulgar films in Bangladesh started with the 1999 film 'Ranga Bau'. Rituparno Sengupta, Amin Khan and Humayun Faridi played the lead roles in this film. Its director was Mohammad Hussain. Many romantic scenes and vulgar dance moves were shown in the film. The producers believed that this would attract people to the cinema halls and revive the sinking film business. According to media reports, all this used to happen with the consent of powerful politicians.
Every second film in Bangladesh started being made in this way and in between, porn clips were also inserted in them so that the audience does not leave the theatre midway. In that period, Mayuri, Noddy, Alexander Bo, Mehndi, Munmun had become big stars of porn films. This period was termed as the 'Dark Age of Bangladeshi Cinema'.
Pornographic films were banned in 2007
Pornographic films replaced Bangladeshi films in theatres. This caused a great loss to Bangladeshi cinema and to overcome this, a movement against pornographic films was started in 2003.
Actors started protesting in front of the Film Development Corporation. As a result, government intervention finally freed Bangladeshi cinema from the clutches of pornographic films by 2007.
Depth is difficult due to lack of original films
The trend of copying Indian films that started in Bangladesh in the 80s continues till date. Barring a few filmmakers, even today the number of people making original films in Bangladesh is very low. This is the reason why this film industry was marginalized since the 90s. In the last ten-fifteen years, only films like 'Ayambaji', 'Monpura', 'Dhaka Attack' are considered original. This is the reason why the Bangladeshi audience appreciated them and also flocked to the cinema halls to watch them.
Sheikh Hasina gave a fund of 700 crores
The Bangladeshi film industry did not receive government support in the beginning. This film industry was called an orphan. However, the situation improved a lot after Sheikh Hasina became the Prime Minister for the first time in 1996.
The film sector was first given the status of an industry in 2001. Along with this, Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) was also established. For a long time, the government has been giving grants for some films every year.
Last year itself, Sheikh Hasina had requested the filmmakers to focus on making good cinema. In fact, seeing the poor condition of cinema, producers do not want to invest money in films, due to which the crisis on the future of films in Bangladesh is getting more severe.
Sheikh Hasina also announced a fund of Rs 700 crore in 2022 to improve the condition of cinema halls in the country and build new multiplexes.
Sheikh Hasina had lifted the ban on Hindi films
In 1972, the release of Indian films was banned in Bangladesh so that the local industry could be promoted and employment could also increase. Although the rules were changed many times to release Hindi films, but it proved unsuccessful. Aamir Khan's 'Three Idiots' in 2009 and Shahrukh Khan's 'My Name is Khan' in 2010 were released in Bangladesh but they had to be removed from the theatres due to opposition from local cinema organizations.
In 2009, Salman Khan's film 'Wanted' was released in India. In 2015, it was also released in Bangladesh. However, some local cinema organizations protested against the release of the film. Then 'Wanted' was removed from the 50 theaters in which it was running for a week.
Eight years later, in 2023, seeing the poor condition of Bangladeshi cinema, Sheikh Hasina lifted the ban on the release of foreign films here. The Bangladesh government decided that 10 foreign films would be released commercially in the country.
