Through the Eyes of
ABUL HAYAT
A legendary Bangladeshi actor, director, writer and also a civil engineer, Abul Hayat graduated from BUET and was an executive engineer of Dhaka WASA. He has acted in over 1000 television dramas and written 23 books in total. His first acted television drama was “Oedipus” in 1969 and he wrote his first book “Trishnar Shanti” in 1989. His two daughters (Bipasha Hayat and Natasha Hayat) and two sons-in-law (Tauquir Ahmed and Shahed Sharif Khan) are also involved in acting. He received the National Film Award for 'Best Supporting Actor' in 2007 and was awarded the “Ekushey Padak” by the Government of Bangladesh in 2015.
INSPIRATION
I am blessed with an extremely supportive and cultural atmosphere. Of course, my father is my inspiration. Simultaneously, I was favored with the silent support of my mother. Since childhood, I loved to watch dramas. My passion for acting grew after watching the performance of the great actor Amalendu Biswas. Since then, he became my inspiration for acting. After marriage, my wife, who is my better half, has always been very cooperative. She kept on inspiring me in each and every step of my life.
PHILOSOPHY
My aspirations have always been very little. My parents taught me to be satisfied with a minimal amount of desires because that provided more possibilities to fulfil the desired goal. It is true that a person with limited needs can easily be happy in life.
VIEW ON HIS PROFESSION
The strength of art is divine and is all about creativity. Creativity has an immeasurable depth that can give a person celestial peace. A person with a good taste of art is accepted by all as an artist. Acting has always been my passion. Interestingly, it has become both my passion and profession since I left my career as a civil engineer. The young stars of our country are doing really good; I really appreciate their work and I am very hopeful of them. Many of them are promising and I really like to work with them. I believe that as long as they have scopes to learn, they will definitely do better than before. This is a message to the new generation of our country: If you are a good artist, you will definitely be a star one day. But if you crave to be a star, you can never be an artist. It is a must for an artist to be humble; pride should never touch him.
MUSIC
I do not usually consider any boundary in case of music and just love listening to all types of songs; but Bengali songs are preferred mostly. Of course, Rabindra Sangeet is on the top. I like Nazrul Sangeet too. Recently, I have found an amazing charm in 'Lokogeeti' of our country.
FILMS
I have watched a lot of movies in my life. The movies of Satyajit Ray are my favorites; and "Pather Panchali" is one of those movies. In my student life, some of my favorite movies were "The Guns of Navarone", "The Call of The Road" and "Roman Holiday". The movies of Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen have always been my favorites. A legendary film of our country "Jibon Theke Neya" by Zahir Raihan is my all-time favorite.
BOOKS
I have a huge collection of books. Novels and short stories are preferred more than poems. "Haat Bariye Dao" which was translated by Anu Mohammad from a story of Oriana Fallaci enchants me a lot. The books of Sunil Gangopadhyay have always been my favorite. "Shei Somoy" and "Bonofuler Golpo Samagra" are also some of my favorites. Also, "Kobi" by Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay is one of my top most favorite novels.
FUTURE PLANS
Acting has always been my loyal companion and my thirst for acting is ceaseless. Recently, I am involved in a comedy drama serial titled "Tin Pagole Holo Mela" on Channel I which is written by Kamrul Ahsan. The story of this drama is about searching for the truth by three young men. In the near future, I have a plan to act in a movie if I find a suitable role for me.
IDOLS
My first idol is my beloved father, Abdus Salam. To me, he was my teacher, best companion, and instructor of my life as well. He was involved in so many social activities like fishing, playing, clubbing and so on. My mother is also my idol who has left a deep impression on me.
By Shawreen Rahman