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The headline may seem to show an intention to be catchy, but it was actually inspired by a Zahir Rayhan film named ‘Let there be light (1971)’, which reminds us about the golden past of the cinema of Bangladesh.
It was a time when the film industry was so big that we had more than 1200 halls all over the country compared to the 175 halls now.
But what’s the point recalling that golden past when we are struggling with a declining film industry where the recently released films from 2022 to 23 naming Poran (2022), Hawa (2022), Surongo(2023), Priyotoma(2023), Prohelikla (2023) and some well-acclaimed OTT series like Karagar (2022), Mahanagar (2021-2023) and Myself Allen Swapon(2023) are the very few works that are showing us the dim possibility to survive from it? Or is there more to the discussion than what is observed on the surface?
In the early 1990s, two things happened. At first, with the introduction of satellite cable and VHS, the viewers got exposed to global cinema, which created a subsequent generation gap among the filmmakers. The second important factor was the increase in piracy and the introduction of copying plots from foreign films in the Bangladeshi film industry. Despite these backdrops, the film industry produced stars like Salman Shah, who singe-handedly tried to pull the rope to save Bangla cinema from its decline.
But, in the early 2000s, there emerged something that had never happened before in our cinema. With political intervention and lack of supervision from the then government, people from outside the film industry entered the film industry, which led to the increase of obscenity and a serious increase of copying from other films in Bangla cinema.
There evolved this word called ‘Cut-piece’, which meant the use of obscene footage from other films in the middle of any full-length feature films shown in the cinema halls. This tendency started to drive the audience out of the cinema, and the number of halls started to fall quickly.
By the 2010s, the number of cinema halls in Bangladesh was reduced to 300. At that time, there came government intervention to bring the film industry under supervision, wipe out obscenity and make the censor board stronger.
Famous filmmakers and actors like Kazi Hayat, Malek Afsary, and the then superstar Manna started talking against these mishaps which were happening after the 2000s. Slowly, the film industry started to obliterate obscenity and tried to regain its previous phase. But, the flow of regular film releases, like in the 1990s, got seriously disrupted for more than seven to eight years, and producers started to move away from the industry.
The hope for the return of the golden age of Bangla cinema started in the early 2010s when films like Monpura (2009), Television (2012), Chorabali (2012) and many others started to be made by young filmmakers like Giasuddin Selim, Mustafa Sarwar Farooki, Redwan Roni and many others.
But one film which really showed us the hope for the return of commercial success of Bangla cinema was Amitabh Reza Chowdhury’s Aynabaji, released in 2016. The film, according to its maker, was not made for the commercial audience but still brought a large part of the mainstream audience back to the cinema hall.
After that, films like Poramon 2 (2018), Dhaka Attack (2017), Debi (2018), Hawa (2022), Poran (2022), and recently Surongo (2023) and Priyotoma(2023) became successful in keeping the audience glued to the film screen. Similarly, films like Oggatonama (2016), Live From Dhaka (2016), Rehana Mariam Noor (2021), Rickshaw Girl (2021) and Saturday Afternoon (2019) represented Bangla cinema to the global audience in different film festivals. By this time, with the influence of the global rise in OTT platforms, online streaming platforms like Iflix and Chorki evolved.
Looking at the major film industries of the world, for example, Hollywood, we see that in recent times, most dramas, crime thrillers, and historical films are taking their places on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime or Apple TV, and the actions, Sci-Fi and films from superhero genres are being released in the theatre. It happened because of the conscious decision of the Hollywood film industry to make more money from superhero franchises first and then make the audience linger on it.
As all these streaming platforms bought many classic films from old studios like Warner Brothers and became bigger as online platforms, they can produce more films, especially for online release. But the fact remains that online platforms have not yet replaced the theatres.
From the perspective of Bangladesh, we have only 175 halls for movies to be shown. And, the online platforms, despite producing some very good content, are still at a very primary stage. They must buy classic films and recently released films which are successful at the box office to generate more subscriptions and grow bigger. This means the online platform will not grow rapidly if the commercial films don’t grow in parallel.
Therefore, there is no other way without the continued production of films of mixed genres like Surongo (2023), romantic films like Priyotoma(2023) or films which will engage the mainstream audience.
There has to be some management of content; thus, anything like free films doesn’t exist on YouTube, which will help to increase the subscription of online platforms. And most importantly, there have to be creative producers for which a major change in the film education of Bangladesh is vital.
So far, many universities have a special department on Film and Television in Bangladesh, but most of those emphasize producing film directors rather than creative producers and other technicians. Also, there is a tendency in the educational process to give independent and art films more importance than films made for the commercial audience. If some fundamental changes aren’t brought in these sectors, a quick change in the film industry is a far cry.
But one thing we all have to agree on, which the director of Priyotoma (2023) said in a recent interview with Tanvir Tareq, is that if quality films can be made continuously, the Bangla film industry can grow bigger than anyone can ever imagine because in the subcontinent, there is this tendency of a repeated audience of a particular film which is not very easy to create in film industry like Hollywood where people watch a film after critical acclamation than emotionally loving a film like our audience.