International campaign to restore the ancestral homes of Ray, Ghatak and Sen underway

A movement in support of a global campaign to restore the ancestral houses of legendary film directors Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen in Bangladesh, has started.  

The Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), the apex body of the film societies’ network in the country, founded by Satyajit Ray in 1959, decided to initiate the international campaign for the restoration of the ancestral houses of the directors, during their Central Executive Committee meeting on January 30 in Kolkata.

 Premendra Mazumder, Vice President of FFSI and Asia Pacific Secretary of the International Federation of Film Societies (IFFS), has been entrusted with the responsibility of taking up the issue at the international forum of IFFS, for supporting the demand of FFSI.  

 Mazumder told The Daily Star that he would be in touch with directors Morshedul Islam, Tanvir Mokammel, Shameem Ashraf and Abu Sayeed for coordinating the campaign globally. The FFSI has decided to take the issue to the notice of the Indian Ministry of Culture Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage and UNESCO. Tanvir and Sayeed welcomed the initiative by the FFSI and said that the filmmakers of Bangladesh and India working together for the restoration will be effective. Sayeed added that the restoration of Ray’s ancestral house at Kishoreganj should be a top priority, as it is also the house of Ray’s father and grandfather.

 Film activists in Dhaka have appealed to the Bangladesh government through the District Administration for immediate renovation and preservation of the ancestral houses of the directors, and formed a human chain in this regard at Shahbagh recently. Eminent film personalities of Bangladesh, including Tanvir Mokammel, Morshedul Islam, Nasiruddin Yousuff, Shameem Akhtar and many others protested on the streets and signed a petition for the government to support the cause.

Ritwik spent his early years at his ancestral home in Rajshahi and studied in Rajshahi College. Ghatak’s family left the house in 1948. The house was leased out in the late 1980s by the then military government of Hussain Md Ershad to a private homeopathic college. Most of the house was demolished and restructured into a college building. Recently, the authorities demolished another room to build a bicycle garage.

The film and cultural community of Rajshahi and Dhaka hit the streets of Rajshahi, Dhaka and Toronto in the last week of December, in a protest joined by many leading filmmakers, film scholars, teachers, students and activists.

Mrinal Sen’s ancestral house at Faridpur is now under the disposal of a private owner. Most of the property has been demolished to build something new. The original house can still be renovated and preserved.