Zero tolerance to corruption

After joining office at Chittagong sub-centre of Bangladesh Television (CTV) as general manager (GM) on September 20, Jean-Nesar Osman, a popular ad film maker of the country, vowed for showing zero tolerance to corruption.

He said so in an exclusive interview to The Daily Star last week at his office.

The GM said the CTV is going to air programmes for six hours every day from December, and people in 11 districts under Chittagong division would get the opportunity to watch the programmes scheduled from 4pm-10pm through the terrestrial channel of Bangladesh Television (BTV).

People in other districts except those under Chittagong division and the expatriates also can watch the programmes through satellite channels, he said.

At present, CTV airs programmes and news for a little over 2 hours daily, from 5pm.

Asked about the alleged corruption by some officials of CTV, Osman said he will show zero tolerance to corruption and punitive action will be taken against them if the allegation of corruption against any official is found true.

“Many artistes came to me and alleged that they had to give money to perform in the programmes of CTV. I will by no means tolerate it during my tenure. I assure you that no artiste will have to pay a single penny to perform in the programmes of CTV; rather, CTV will pay honorarium to them,” he said.

Osman further said there are a lot of talents in Chittagong “who were not evaluated” in the past and with these talents, CTV will be able to air quality productions that will compete with the programmes of international channels.

“Of course it is a big challenge and I hope we will overcome it,” he said, adding, “We have here eminent poets like Abul Momen, social scientists like Anupam Sen, cultural personalities like Shila Momen and with their help we will achieve our goal.”

CTV is well equipped for airing programmes for six hours daily, he informed. Over 100 people are working in CTV at present. “We have 13 modern cameras and five editing panels and we are going to appoint 80 more people within a month or two to meet the manpower crisis,” he said, adding, “I think, if we can air quality programmes, people will choose those over satellite channels.”

Osman said when he was the student of Pune Film and TV Institute his batch-mates included famous Hindi filmmakers and actors Nasiruddin Shah, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, David Dhawan, Om Puri and Suresh Oberoy. “Mithun Chakraborty was a batch senior to me,” he said.

Jean-Nesar said he wanted to use the scenic beauty of Chittagong in the programmes. “For framing, there is nothing like Chittagong…I am surprised that Chittagong has not yet been explored properly,” he said.

Jean-Nesar Osman, son of eminent litterateur Shawkat Osman, made many popular ads in 1980s and in 1990s. The iconic advert of Philips bulb with the slogan “Maachher raja Ilish, aar battir raja Philips” still remains in the memory of people. His portfolio includes some 300 TV commercials.  Jean-Nesar was a theatre activist also. Among other works on the stage, he portrayed a character of the play “Baaki Itihash”, a production of Nagorik Natya Sampraday first staged in 1972. 

After graduating in Bengali Literature from Dhaka University in 1973, Osman went to India and did a diploma in Cinema from Pune Film and TV Institute in 1979, and also underwent one-year training on optical effects in Paris. Then he came back home and started making ads and short films.