Television of Innovation

[Continued from Last Issue]
In this episode, the audiences first saw the appearance of Jewel Aich. At that time Jewel Aich had participated in this program as a magician and the headmaster of Pirojpur High School. The magic he showed in the program was some milk in a glass, getting increased and decreased by only waving his hands. After that, Jewel Aich got the popularity by performing at Abdullah Abu Sayeed's magazine program.

There are so many things in children's program in television to be proud of. But, from the beginning the producers used to focus on learning through playing and many other things. Especially, Mustafa Monwar used to teach children various interesting things through his programs “Katum Kutum” and “Rong Tuli”. He used to present how amazing things can be made only by using papers. And through the name “Rong Tuli” it can be easily guessed what children used to learn from that program. Later Mustafa Monwar and Kazi Kayum made several educational programs for children through puppet shows. Mustafa Monwar is still teaching children moral stories using puppets whereas Kazi Kayum had portrayed Bangladesh's fairy tales for the children through puppets. Especially he has presented many tales from “Thakurmar Jhuli” and “Bangalir Hashir Golpo” in television.

A children based program in television that bought recognition from abroad was called “Ko Ar Kho”. Before the airing of this program there was also a program called “Okkhor Chokkor”. Producer Zia Ansari produced the program “Ko Ar Kho” on the basis of the theme of “Okkhor Chokkor”. The host of the program was Nazma Chowdhury. The show had an interesting character which was a crow. The crow used to pronounce each and every word with a “Ro – fola”. To be precise he used to call the word “Apa” to “Apra”. This word became really famous among children. And the one who used to voice the role of the crow was none other than the famous producer Saidul Anam Tutul.

Children back then not only watched the local programs but they also used to watch the education based programs from abroad on the television. Programs that can be mentioned here are: Sesame Street, Electric Company, A to Zoo, Discovery etc. Through the means of puppetry, many education based programs were gifted to children at that time. David Attenborough at that time produced a science based program called “Life on Earth”. For the show “Life on Earth,” David Attenborough received UNESCO's Kalinga award and was also awarded with many other national and international awards.

Famous astrologist Karl Sagan gathered information from Cornell University for 2 years on the evolution of the universe and the mysterious facts of nature to produce a thirteen episode series called “Cosmos”. He did the shooting of the series in 40 locations around the world. Due to the help of television people in our country, we were able to see these shows.

When they received the small TV van for recording television outside, Abdullah Abu Sayeed said that he will not only use it for entertainment but he will also use it to give education based program to viewers.

The writer is Managing Director, Channel i
Translated by Imtiaz Salim