Television of a lifetime FARIDUR REZA SAGOR

How rapidly history changes! There was a time when culture page of any newspaper was filled with news of movies. Even the weekly and fortnightly cultural magazines contained only stories of cinema. “Chitrali” and “Purbani” were two of those kinds of magazines. Other magazines, too, had large portion dedicated to movies. Even other magazines of different genres couldn't resist movie news.
Those stories were not only about Dhaka films – they were also about movies from Kolkata and Mumbai as well. Even some had stories of Hollywood. In an era of internet and satellite, it is surprising how journalists used to gather news and photos of foreign films. The first entertainment/culture magazine was “Cinema”. The title of the magazine left no doubt on what content was published in it. “Cinema” and other magazines like it contained very light content. Film industry was large, yet those magazines didn't maintain the weight of the industry. It was always of mixed content. Therefore, terms like Hollywood, Bollywood, Tallywood, and later Dhalliwood took decades to reach people.
Opening a page of “Cinema” of 1952 issue, one would notice a name “Greenwood”. A writer of many talents, Syed Shamsul Haque said, “A man from Bogra, the editor of “cinema” came up with a name for this company using “wood” from Hollywood and “Green” from 'evergreen Bangladesh'. Yet, in this electronic age, it took decades to get the terms Dhalliwood from Hollywood.
Bangladesh celebrated 50 years of Film in 2007. “Mukh O Mukhosh” was released 50 years ago on the 3rd of August 1956. Our gain is a lot in little steps. Before 1971, there were many movies that won international awards. After independence many others were nominated for international awards. Most prestigious were “Matir Moyna” “Shyamol Chaya”, “Nirontor” and “Shonpodangai” – which were screened at the Oscars. At least two movies used to get released every week. Not long ago, near Nawabpur roundabout, there were large banners displaying advertisements of upcoming movies. Chowrangi junction in Kolkata and Juhu beach in Mumbai used to have such large banners. Even in magazines, there were ads of upcoming movies. Magazine pages were filled with schedules of movies, and the names of the cinema halls they were to be screened.
Those days are long gone. In Dhaka, there are at least five times more of TV programmes than the number billboards found on movies, . It is not only in Dhaka – the entrance of Chittagong airport displays a large billboard of a certain TV channel. It is not any different in Mumbai or Kolkata. City of Kolkata is full of large billboards of various TV channels.

To be continued…
The Writer is the Managing Director of Channel i