The joy of survival and excellence
Shahiduzzaman Selim is a prominent Bangladeshi actor. He won the Bangladesh National Film Award twice; recently for Best Actor in Negative Role for his performance in the film 'Oggatonama'. In this interview with Star Showbiz, he has shared interesting incidents of his life that have made him the person he is today.
The sportsman inside
There were already a number of lawyers in my family. As I grew older, my parents wanted me to become a barrister. Aside from that, my father had inculcated a genuine interest for sports in me. He used to take all of my siblings, cousins, neighbours and me to Ramna park for practice, and gradually that regular practice turned into an infatuation with football. I could not concentrate even on my studies if I had to miss out on practice. Back then, we used to frequent the Dhaka Stadium quite often to watch football tournaments, no matter which teams were playing. Later on, I became a member of Inter University Football Team of Jahangirnagar University. Over and above, in my childhood, I even wanted to be a truck driver. The thought of driving the most gigantic vehicle on the highway in the midst of many other tiny ones fascinated me a lot. To be honest, I have wanted to become many things altogether in my life, but never an actor.
An adherent struggler
I studied Intermediate in Dhaka College. During that phase, I met one of the most venerable personalities of my life, Nurul Islam sir who was our economics teacher. I, being an absolutely urban, young man was quite fashionable. My favorite footballer was Salauddin. I had long hair back then and even my get-up was not so conventional. Nurul Islam sir was a charismatic teacher; he had this habit of interacting face-to-face with each of his students and he could even remember each of our names. At the age of 18, getting that much attention and recognition from a professor was very thrilling to us. Once he told me, "If you want to press on with your style statements, passion, fashion and all, opt for either English Literature or Law. And if you want to get old before aging like me, go for Economics." I had no plan of studying Economics in the university. But my fortune somehow played its strange tricks on me and I enrolled in the Economics department in Jahangirnagar University. Even in the university, I had always invested an ample time in playing football. After classes, most of my time was spent in the playground, practicing football, wearing a pair of stiff walking boots. Despite all this, I was the only student in our class who had obtained first class in the first year final examination. At night, when everyone else was off to bed or sitting idle in the common room, I started studying. I always put efforts in making the best use of time and hence my inclination towards many other stuffs could never effectively cause any harm to my studies.
An unforeseen destination
Mahmud Ahmed was my roommate in the hall. He was a participant of Inter Hall Drama Group and went to rehearse stage plays almost everyday after lunch. I, personally never had a propensity for acting. Although, my boro chacha was someone from that fraternity and was simultaneously a playwright, actor and director in our hometown Tangail, I never watched any of his plays or performances. In our house, we had a tradition of listening to Akashbani in the evening and Radio Plays in noontime. By that phase, my ears got accustomed to the manner and approach of delivering dialogues. I could even run over the lines of Siraj-ud-Daulah at a stretch. A senior of our hall who was the secretary of Inter Hall Drama Group as well, beckoned me over to join the rehearsal and said that there was a little role for me which I could easily portray on the stage. Humayun Faridee, as the secretary of JAKSU was present there in the character selection round and after seeing me delivering the dialogues and probably doing some justice to the script, he selected me for the central character. That's my story of embarking upon the dramatic art quite dramatically. My first leading lady on stage was Shiuli Apa who was senior to me and the play was a mammoth success.
The wiggling movements
My presence in student's politics was also unpremeditated. My friends and seniors convinced me to contest the election of students' association and I was elected as the sub-sports secretary of JAKSU. In my political journey, I was initially associated with Jasad Chhatra League and later on, I was federated with Socialist Student Front of Bangladesh. In 1983, the movement about Mojid Khan Education Policy had convulsed our tranquility and we had rebelled against the tyranny of army by installing blockages on every step so that they could not enter our premises. I had written a slogan-based play which was staged at the Shaheed Minar of JU. On February 16, 1983 many of our students were seized by the army among whom I was one. My academic books on Marxist Economics had conveyed a red signal to them. We were kept and being thrashed and tortured in the Savar cantonment for a week. After my getaway from the cantonment, I took rest for three months and then enrolled in Dhaka Theatre.
Home, heart: Dhaka Theatre
After enrolling in Dhaka Theatre, my gist for acting was actually consolidated. I had already realised that my exhaustive existence was embedded in stage. Meanwhile, I had graduated from university and like any other middle-class man, I too had this sense of accountability towards my family. But at the same time, I was resolute about my inclination for acting. My family wanted me to crack the BCS exam but I knew that once I become an admin I would get posting somewhere out of Dhaka. I kept procrastinating and thus knocked out all the possibilities of becoming a BCS cadre. I cleared the Bankers recruitment test and got posting in Kishorganj hence I had to decline that job opportunity as well. Finally, I secured a job in Pfizer Multinational Company and luckily this job brought me the privilege of continuing job while living in Dhaka and I could continue acting with Dhaka Theatre. I worked in Pfizer for 15 long years. Dr Saroar Ali was our chief administrator and after my father, Nurul Islam sir of Dhaka College, and Nasiruddin Yusuf he was my mentor throughout my corporate life.
The learning phase
It was the tradition of Dhaka Theatre that our mentors would send us for television audition once they found us worthy of venturing into the television industry. Back then, all the superstars who entered the picture were from Dhaka Theatre – Subarna Mustafa, Afzal Hossain, Humayun Faridee and several other actors. In the intervening period, I got an offer of appearing in a cinema named Nodir Nam Modhumoti of Tanvir Mohammad. I was all equipped to explore this new dimension of acting before light, camera and even took a leave from my office for shooting. I was then an already acclaimed name in the theatre art fraternity on account of my performance in Hata Dai, Kirtonkhola, Keramat Mongol and many other stage plays. Tanvir Mohammad came to my place a day before shooting and expressed his inability to sign me up for the project because the producer wanted a familiar face and not an apprentice one. Thus, I was uncast from that film and Tauquir Ahmed, being a better experienced actor got the chance. I have another such experience of disparagement during my struggling days. I was supposed to work in another film which was inspired from the famous novel Tuka Kahini of Bulbul Chowdhury. I was in fact a replacement of Humayun Faridee since he was very busy with some other works. Abul Khair, after he had come to know that I was going to do the character, said that he would leave the movie if I did it because according to him I was a complete mismatch for the character of a bricklaying day labourer. Both these incidents had literally dissed my self-respect and the tone of disgrace in their statements about me ignited a sense of challenge inside me that I would have to enlist my name in television by any means. After just a few days, I appeared in an audition and secured the first place whilst performing before all the legendary actors of that time. Nasiruddin Yusuf used to choose my characters in the TV dramas and with Jonakir Alo, my journey as a television artist reached such a platform that I never had to look back since then.
Delight in direction
My interest in direction is more of an interest about dictatorship. A director gets to have everyone dancing on his tunes whilst directing a play or a film. I undeniably love that feeling of absolutism. Other than that, since I am fortunate enough to have worked with legends like Abdullah Al Mamun, Sheikh Riazuddin Badsha, Atikur Rahman I know the subtle deftness and technical craft of direction to some extent. Sporsher Baire marked my debut as a director and was largely appreciated. I have made four TV dramas on four different novels of Nasrin Akhter. Rong Chut, Samanta, Lee were critically acclaimed. I have a friend who lives in the USA and has a production house called Chicago Bioscope. Humayun Faridee and I went to USA and my production house Dream Factory and Chicago Bioscope jointly produced some digital dramas among which Ekjon Ajmal Hossain, Mixed Culture are the significant ones. I also produced some television dramas. Mustafa Saroar Farukee's directorial debut Choruibhati was my production. I have produced some of Animesh Aich's TV dramas too.
Stream of life
The national award for my negative role in Oggatonama has just added fuel to my motivation. The role of a rustic legman was definitely challenging and I got enough space to come up with my acting efficiency and managed to portray the character to perfection on the silver screen. Bapjaner Bioscope, Meghomallar, Chorabali, Padmapatar Jol are some other movies that I still take delight to have been a part of. Recently I submitted another film, Ma Rosa for government grant but my appeal got declined because the script writer was my friend, Harun Rashid who is also the director-general of Bangladesh Television. The internal committee dismissed it because they were skeptical if Harun's involvement in the film might create some controversy later on. Nevertheless, I just hope that our audience get more exposure to our indigenous culture. Our entertainment industry undoubtedly needs more cultivation and patronization. I hope the sun will shine brighter on our industry in the days to come.
By Sharbani Datta
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