Introduction:

The cinema of Bangladesh, rarely referred to as Dhallywood, has had a

significant effect on Asia. Bangladesh has had a significant film industry
since the 80's. Film production reached an all-time high in 1990, a period
referred to as the golden age of Bangladeshi cinema. During the 1990s, the
Bangladeshi film industry produced some of the biggest films in the history
of Bangladeshi Cinema. As of 2013, the Bangladeshi film industry grossed
around $62mn in the domestic market from 120 releases, making
Bangladesh

the

10th

largest

film

producing

country

in

the

world. According to film pundits, the Bangladeshi film industry is growing

at a very fast pace in recent years. 2014 has proved to be an excellent year
for the film industry, with some of movies being the highest grossing
Bangladeshi films of all time. The Bangladeshi film industry has its
beginnings with the 1931 production of Last Kiss; the earliest feature film
ever made in what would become Bangladesh. However, the first ever
screening of films in Bangladesh started on April 24, 1898 by Bradford
Bioscope

Company

harbour. Commercially

at

the

successful

Crown

Theater

Bangladeshi

films

near

Dhaka

have

included

Tojammel Haq's The Gypsy Daughter, AJ Khan's The face and the mask,
Giashuddin Selim's Monpura, Ashiqur Rahman's Kistimaat and Iftakar
Chowdhury's Agnee.[9] Bangladeshi Film Industry is the second largest film
industry in South Asia after Bollywood and as of 2014; it is the ninth
largest in Asia terms of revenue.

Present Situation:
During 1990s, Bangladeshi films started losing a large sector of audience
because of lack of quality. The film directors started giving more attention
to film's music, dance and other elements instead of story and screenplay.
Some also began to add action and intense scenes. A few directors began to
imitate and copy foreign films, mostly Indian films. Hence, the films could
attract only the urban living small income people.
During 2000s, Bangladeshi films began doing poor business and initially,
the numbers of films decreased. The term 'Bangla Cinema' became a
matter of joke among the people. Though there always have been some
independent film makers who attempt to make movies in a good manner,
their work attract only a few audience.
After declining during most of the 2000s, the Bangladeshi film industry
bounced back after 2009. With the help of the Bangladeshi Government
and the emergence of giant production companies, the Bangladeshi film
industry is growing at a fast pace. Since 2010, Bangladesh has developed
several large production and distribution companies, such as Jaaz
Multimedia and Tiger Media Limited and the films produced by them have
been doing better business than the others for their large budget and
glamorous appearance. But these films hardly catch the educated
audience living in rural and urban areas.
The year 2014 proved to be the most profitable year, while 2015 is already
the biggest, with some of Bangladeshs biggest films lined up for release.
Bollywood's Reliance Entertainment Limited has expressed their interest in

producing Bangladeshi films. However, the Bangladesh Film Corporation

didn't respond due to the ban on Indian films in Bangladesh.

Environment of Film Industry of Bangladesh:

As a nation, we have always had film as a foremost choice of
entertainment, and as an outlet of our emotions. Statistics show that the
film industry revives better than most others from negative Influential
factors*, often at rates which are unexpected for a people with spending
capabilities as limited as ours!
*Factors like: Natural Calamities, Political transitions and
talented stars etc.

loss of

 The Economic Segment:

Though the study of Film as a discipline started around 1960s, the debate
whether a movie is a piece of art or not began much earlier. A group of
academicians favor the term Film over Movie and recognize it as a piece
of Art. But a great number of practitioners and academicians regard it as a
form of entertainment, pure and simple. Government may promote movies
as a mass communication tool to communicate nationally important
messages to its people. We will not take any extreme position to explain the
phenomena of Film industry of Bangladesh. Assumptions that fail to
provide criteria for the analysis of messages, falling between the extremes
of good and bad, beautiful and ugly and art and non-art must prove
singularly unfit as basic assumptions for the analysis of films that so
clearly fall between these extreme. (Sol Worth 1971)

On the other hand, the inherent issues like demand uncertainty, risk
involvement and big investment movie turns to be a business. . 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 factor will be
4

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.
After the War of Independence of Bangladesh in 1971, most of the time we
have seen one man show in the film Industry. Sometimes it is Nayok Raz
Razzak, Sometimes it is Dashing Hero Jashim, then Romantic Hero
Salman Shah and Lastly Super Star Manna. After the sudden death of
Manna in 2008, whole film industry was jolted down. Shakib Khan came to
the limelight and whole industry was directed centering him. Situations
worsened as there was lack of variation in stories, lack of innovation in
other areas of movie making. People started to forget about going Cinema
Hall 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-producersactors, Bangladesh Cinema Hall Owners Association imported Indian
Bangla movie to exhibit in their dormitory. But this initiative went in vain
also.

Guerrilla
With the emergence of some brilliant young directors especially Mostofa
Sarwar Farooki ( director) , M. A. Jalil Ananta (Producer-Actor), Giasuddin
Selim (Monpura), Nasiruddin Yousuff (Guerrilla), Redoan Rony (Chorabali)
the film industry get back 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 comes to arm the life of the film industry with
continuous re-engineering . It is a business term what Japanese calls
Kaizen. From the capitalistic view, without the motivation of profit
continuous development or re-engineering of something is impossible.

Monpura
We all know that a good producer is a good investor; a good director is a
good manager and obviously a good marketer also. You need 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 to be a successful director. You have to act like a total
businessman.
6

Another thing to consider is that popularity in the past has been has been
found to be no guarantee of success in the future. There is no simple,
consistent relationship between film themes, costs of productions and box
office receipts.(Edmunds and Strick 1977).It is strategically sound to
recognize the truth of movie business more elaborately. The measure of
success in movie making is attendance either in terms of the number of
admissions, the dollar value of the rental fees which exhibitors return to
the distributors. But more practically it is not the number of admission,
not box office hit; it is the rentals which the distributor receives that are
used in calculating the actual profit or loss.(Jowett, Linton 1980)

Chorabali
In the competitive market one must differentiate his/her movies in the
market. But In which area you have to differentiate, in which area you have
to compete is a matter of concern. Each movie while produced is
essentially a unique commodity. It needs high degree of product
differentiation which results in promotional competition rather than
admission price competition. (Larmett et al, 1978).Product differentiation
needs to be dealt with cultural sensitivity and the most important thing is
to position in the audiences mind differently.

Understanding the phenomena of the film industry in a pragmatic way is

significant to the people having stake 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.

 The Global Segment:

Bangladeshi cinema-goers can now enjoy Indian films in cinema halls
across the country, for the first time, as the Indian action crime thriller,
Wanted, got clearance certificate from the Bangladesh film censor board
yesterday. Saiful Islam Chowdhury, member of the censor board and
president of Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitors Association, confirmed
the development. Inn-win Enterprise has imported the film, under the
Import Policy Order, 2012-15. Inn-win Enterprise proprietor Iftekhar Uddin
Naushad told The Independent that screening each others movies should
be allowed in both the countries, to save the cinema halls and the film
industry in general.
Many cinema halls are closing down. If this continues, it will be difficult to
save the industry. Thats why we have to open up the market, he added.
About releasing Wanted, Naushad, also the proprietor of Madhumita
Cinema Hall, said, Ive called upon the film producers' association, to
release the film in 50-60 cinema halls across the country. Everything
depends on the approval of the association.
Recreational programmes like music, drama, movies, documentaries, etc.
can be exported in the form of audio and video cassettes, compact discs
(CD), DVDs, etc., if there is no objection from the information ministry, the
order said.
Armed with this order, Bangladesh distributors imported Indian films such
as Don 2, Three Idiots, and Taare Zameen Par. Of the films imported,
Wanted got the clearance of the censor board for the first time, Saiful Islam
Chowdhury said.
9

Two other filmsKhoka Babu and Khoka 420are in the pipeline for
clearance of the censor board, he added.
Under the order, two organisations, Khan Brothers and Upahar Cinema,
exported eight films Ananta Bhalabasha, Hridoyer Bondhan, Maa Amar
Swarga, Tumi Amar Moner Manush, Mukhoshdhari, Sramik Neta, Praner
Manush, and Josner Prem. Of these, Maa Amar Swarga and Tumi Amar
Moner Manush got clearance from the Indian censor board.
JK Entertainment, a West Bengal-based distributor, distributes the films. It
has filed an application with the authorities at West Bengal state-run
Nandan cineplex, in Kolkata, to screen the films there, in December.
Under the Import Policy Order, 2012-15, import of cinematographic films
from SAFTA countries will be equal in number, against export of films
produced in Bangladesh.

10

 The Technological & Sociocultural Segment:

The technique of art is to make objects "unfamiliar", to make
forms difficult, to increase the difficulty and length of perception
because the process of perception is an aesthetic end in itself and
must be prolonged. Art is a way of experiencing the artfulness of
an object: the object is not important.
(Art as a Technique, Viktor
Sklovosky)
As mentioned earlier the familiar portrayal of the liberation war
of Bangladesh was not the central concern of Nasiruddin Yousuff and
Rubayat Hossains recent films
Guerrilla and Meherjaan. Rather these films attempt to open new
perspectives from the typical representation of the liberation war where
the dominant version has been always projected with passion and
authenticity. Getting away from the earlier gender- biased projection of
characters, these two film makers defamiliarize the typical representation
of women by voicing it from the womans perspective and adopting a
distinctive narratological process.

Viktor Sklovosky in his Art as a Technique expresses

Anyone who knows Tolstoy can find several hundred passages in
his work where his method of seeing things out of their normal
context is so apparent. Tolstoy described the dogmas and rituals
he attacked as if they were unfamiliar, substituting everyday
meanings for the customarily religious meanings of the words
common in church ritual. Many persons were painfully wounded;
11

they

considered

it

blasphemy

to

present

as

strange

and

monstrous what they accepted as sacred. Their reaction was due

chiefly to the technique through which Tolstoy

12

perceived and reported his environment. And after turning to

what he had long avoided, Tolstoy found that his perceptions had
unsettled his faith.
The technique of defamiliarization is nothing new. But in
Bangladeshi context, Hossain applies this technique for the first time in
Meherjaan to encounter the grand narrative of the nations liberation
war through her outlandish love-story and faces almost similar criticism
that Tolstoy had faced then. As Pablo Casals said, The love of ones

country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?
Having this notion

in mind Hossains film Meherjaan breaks the border bringing the

people together under the magic of love. Meherjaan portrays the
emotional aspects of human psyche where people are in war fight and kill
each other, but the only thing remains is the purity of love. Following the
tagline of the film Loving the other Hossain creates a love story in the
backdrop of the war, but there is little of war in it. She tries to provide a
post-nationalist perspective of 1971, by valorizing the everyday politics of
the villagers and also emphasizes on looking at the liberation through
the eyes of the women who loves a Baloch Army, Washim, who
rescues her from a rape attempt. Again this Washim rejects to support
his own army when he realizes the shameless ferocities they are doing in
Bangladesh. Interestingly, this film pronounces the necessity of loving
the other in a rather more atypical way that projects all the sensual
aspects of feminine love ignoring the horror of the war (upon which the
story is supposedly based). Meherjaan, the protagonist of the film falls in
love with an enemy soldier while living in the same home with her cousin
13

Nila. Her character symbolizes the symbol of love, but in the wrong time
of the history. She is educated, peaceful and against war. But despite
being educated, she is totally unaware of the national demand of
independence and the reasons behind that. This projection somehow
might remind of a typical Indian films romance genre, where the war is
between the families in the backdrop, and the lovers are courting
aside. Criticisms aside, this surely is a new way of projecting the war in
the cinema of Bangladesh.

Again, I find strong resemblances of Hollywood action films with

that

of Guerilla, where the heroine is to bring justice and is involved

with serious action. The protagonist of Guerilla disguises herself,

provides grenades and explosives to co- fighters, deceives the high-ups of
the army and sets a bomb there that explodes minutes after her
departure. Even at the end of the film she manages to set the army camp
on fire through her hand bomb. All this action pack thriller-drama has
been technically done in a real Hollywood style. The violent portrayal of
gruesome killing also reminds us of any Hollywood thriller film. Even the
Bengali soundtrack in the film is also influenced by Western compositions.
In total, this film, portraying the 1971 liberation war, is actually
demonstrating a whole new 21

st

century stylish action thriller as a

genre, which also is very new way of defining the liberation war on the
celluloid in Bangladesh.

14

 The Political Segment:

Bangladeshi movie actors and directors have gone on an indefinite strike

protesting against a decision to screen Indian movies in local theatres.
Shoots both at Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (FDC) and
elsewhere in the country have come to a halt since Thursday evening.

'Bangladesh Chalachitra Oikya Jote' (films unity) told bdnews24.com that

the strike would continue until further announcement.
Leaders of the unity submitted a memorandum to the Prime Ministers
Office on Thursday afternoon opposing the import and screening of Indian
films.

Prime ministers Information Affairs Adviser Iqbal Sobhan received the

memorandum.

A leader of the Oikya Jote and Bangladesh Film Directors Associations

Publicity Secretary, Ahmed Ali Mondal said, In protest against the release
of Indian movie Wanted, we have decided to suspend all movie-related
activities.

"We are now waiting for the prime ministers response. Our strike will
continue until our demands are met.
He said film stars including 'Shakib', 'Moushumi' and Amit Hasan along
with crew members would visit theatres at 9am on Friday.
15

They would request the audience to boycott Bollywood movies at halls

where Wanted is expected to be released.
Bangladesh Film Directors Association, Film Artists Association and other
organisations of the film industry have started the protest since Inwin
Enterprise decided to imported four Hindi movies from India 'Wanted',
'Don 2', 'Taare Zameen Par' and '3 Idiots'.
The Oikya Jote was formed after the Inwin announced the release of
Wanted in 80 theatres.
Leaders of the Oikya Jote said at a press conference at the FDC on Tuesday
that they would prevent the screening of Hindi movies at any cost.

On the other hand, head of the Inwin Nawshad said they followed the
SAFTA Agreement and the direction of the information ministry while
importing the movies and hence there was no legal hurdle in releasing
Wanted.

Meanwhile, on behalf of the Oikya Jote, Advocate Ekhlas Uddin Bhuiyan

has sent a legal notice to the cabinet secretary, cultural affairs minister and
secretary, chairman of the Censor Board, Dhaka deputy commissioner, IG
of

the

police

asking

them

not

to

allow

screening

of

Wanted.

In the meantime, the Bangladesh Film Producers and Distributors

Association has convened an emergency meeting on Saturday to take a
decision on the import and screening of Indian films.

16

 The Demographic Segment:

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 directorsproducers-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
17

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.

18

SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS:

Approx. 1000 cinemas in all 66 major district HQ

No. of Viewers: Over 50 million and above.

Habitual attitude that entertainment is a big part of life for

Bangladeshis

Ample group of Talented artists and Makers

Rising demand from viewers for more improved quality movies

Average Cost of production is substantially lower that other

countries/economies.

WEAKNESSES:

Limited technological advancement

Heavily influenced Quality control forums.

Poor Infrastructure for film crew and viewers.

Politicized controlling body, Trade union

Restricted entry given to large Private Sector Investors.

Declining no. movie goers resulting in both falling Government and

industry revenue

19

 Rising unmet demand from viewers for more improved quality movies
Overall poor Perception of the Silver Screen and the values it generates

OPPORTUNITIES:

Potential viewer base of 50 million (approx)

Wide and extensive Outreach of cinema Halls.

The ongoing exponential rise in Marketing giving rise to opportunities for

product placement in films.

Physiographical the range TGs are Entertainment Craving

Potential to capturing a large chunk of the Satellite TV Audience

Large NRB Population.

Potential for being first in BD for Pay Per View online

Current stability should provide conducive investment climate

A renewed interest in local Arts and Culture as evidenced by the boom in

both the music industry and Private TV channels.

THREATS:

Satellite TV still has a formidable influence in terms of viewership

Stringent and censorship rules dating back from before the satellite era.

20

 Cheap Technologies for Media reproduction CD/DVD/Internet.

Physiographically the range TGs are Entertainment Craving (subject to
influence of other modes of entertainment)
Current Instability threat to friendly investment climate

Lack of professional expertise entering the field can further lower

standards
Possibilities + Threats = PROSPECT:
The objective, therefore, should be to put the strengths and weaknesses
on a common scale and bring out the rewards, which can be summarized as
below:
By Publicizing The Proper Cast (crew), any producer can generate at
least a certain amount of interest around each production.
By promising something NEW in the film, it is always possible to generate
footfall in the halls (simple animation can do wonders too).
Many producers lose out on a ground unknown to them. The success of
any film largely depends on understanding the important people (Hall
Owners Shomiti, stakeholders) and other crucial factors like Distribution
process and network.
The success rates of fresh producers are also determined by their
affiliation with larger institutions (Using TV channels as banners) which
have the above understanding. Database, company history of field level
experience and Individual success has also been accounted to success as
investor (or producer).
21

22

Recommendation:
Bangladesh film industry must produce quality movies

The picture shows M A Jalil Ananta (left), a brilliant young director, with his coactress Borsha
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
23

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.
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 behavior, 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

24

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.

25

Conclusion:
The Film industry has for long been neglected from substantial Public or
Private Sector Investment. The True Potential of this industry has long been
misunderstood. Recent World Economy is undergoing a Recession and Stats
suggest that return upon investment in the film Industry is risk Free, More
Secure and more Prospective than other Conventional forms of Investment.

Indeed film making is a risky business and very few in our country dare to denote a notion of
defamiliarization against the typically familiar projection, however it is a noteworthy
change in the context of our socio-cultural environment that the recent film-makers are
daring to Think otherwise and show different perspectives of the great history of our
country. The aspiration and the dare to think otherwise should stand strong. If so, then
someday in near future Bangladeshi film industry will be able to uphold the glorious national
history of our country in front of the world audience with larger definitions and interesting
interpretations.

26

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Bangladesh
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2014/10/11/60341
http://www.thedailystar.net/reviving-the-bangladeshi-film-industry37120
Bangladesh-Journal-of-Environmental-Society.-June-2011._2

27