Bogura Youth Choir: Battling hard to regain its former glory

Those growing up watching Bangladesh Television between the 70s and 90s will fondly remember one programme for daring to be different.

The song and dance troupe performed folk and mass songs in local dialect, coupled with choreography and satire. Known as the Bogura Youth Choir (BYC), their primary objective was to enrich local culture as well as create social awareness on weighty issues such as the Liberation War, freedom, poverty, and gender equality, among others.

Appearing on BTV once every three months, the BYC was so popular that people in the northern districts closed their shops well in advance to watch the hour-long programme.

It was also hugely popular among audiences in the capital at a time when BTV was the only television station in the country. The choir’s burgeoning popularity meant that BTV started including it in special programmes on various national days and festivals such as Eid, Victory Day, and Independence Day.

BYC’s last BTV programme was in 2011. Today, it is barely in the limelight with limited patrons, funding, and artistes. The now-diminished choir’s 44th anniversary went almost unnoticed on October 4 at its once famous Nawab Bari road home in Bogura town, where it had its humble origins.

“I was disappointed when BTV and other TV channels stopped running this programme,” Dr Enamul Haque, an eminent musicologist, told The Daily Star recently.

An Ekushey Padak winner in 2014 and Independence Day Award winner in 2017, Dr Enamul, who presented many BYC programmes on BTV, said: “The Bogura Youth Choir was a unique show on BTV and enlightened people through entertainment. I would say the group played an important role in our society in the past. It is still relevant today, and will continue to be for future generations.”

He added that television owners nowadays consider only the business value of a programme and rarely prioritise its relevance for mass culture. He was also critical of BTV for not “evaluating this group properly”.

Since its inception in 1976, BYC has performed in more than 60 programmes on BTV and other satellite TV channels, with more than 700 performances, according to Toufiqul Alam Tipu, founder and lifelong general secretary of BYC.

Tipu, 74, who devoted his life to seeing BYC’s works spread to every nook and cranny of the country, said the biggest blow was in 2011 when BTV stopped telecasting the programme due to a lack of sponsors.

“We don’t have a proper room to train. There are around 20 artistes still training at the Nawab Bari road house,” Tipu said, adding that most of the artistes come from low-income families.

“They are training hard but what’s the point in training if they don’t get a TV platform to showcase their skills?” asked a frustrated Tipu, who said he has never charged anything from his students.

Masudar Rahman Helal, a local freedom fighter and president of the Socheton Nagorik Committee’s Bogura chapter, said, “They performed their songs, dances and other art forms not just to entertain but also to create awareness against fundamentalism and suppression of vice in every form.”

Reflecting on the choir’s heyday, Tipu said the group frequently appeared in public awareness promotional programmes for organisations such as Lions International, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, the Rotary Club, the Bangladesh Army, and Bangladesh Police. They also worked with many famous film directors and choreographed around 50 film   songs.

“But when vulgarities were injected into film songs, I stopped working in the film industry and returned to Bogura in the beginning of the 90s,” said Tipu.

He also bemoaned that many TV channels run his songs, but he does not get royalties because he has no copyright registration of those.

Tipu once dreamed of establishing a national youth choir, a platform through which local artistes from every district would be able to perform their own cultural and art forms in regional languages.

The people of Bogura as well as members of various local cultural organisations refer to Tipu as a selfless motivator and a versatile artist. They believe the composer, singer, lyricist, choreographer and music director deserves proper recognition from the government.

Tipu appealed to the government, BTV, and the rich to help revive his organisation at a time when the overall cultural sector is in trouble.

Contacted, Md Shahadat Hossain, cultural officer in Bogura district, said, “Actually, we are working to revive these old local cultural organisations, and Bogura Youth Choir is one of them. If they need financial support from the government, they will have to apply to our cultural ministry with their yearly schedule of programmes.”

Contacted last month, BTV’s Director General Haroon-Or-Rashid said they have not received any applications in this regard, and declined to comment further on the matter.