Actors' Equity to hand out ID to registered artistes

The Actors' Equity Bangladesh comprises television actors of the country. Through this organisation, agreements are formed between actors and other parties involved in a production, and problems existing in the industry are mitigated through an elected committee as new rules and regulations are implemented. 

On February 10 this year, the Actors' Equity elected Shahidul Alam Sachchu as President and Ahsan Habib Nasim as General Secretary through elections. Other members of the committee include Intekhab Dinar, Tanveen Sweety, Urmila Srabonti Kar, Shamima Tusty, amongst others.

One of the major pledges of the committee was to present actors registered with the Actor's Equity with ID cards, and the committee has brought that pledge to fruition. Members of the equity have been asked to receive their designated Ids from the Actors' Equity office, marking the first time actors will get official identities as actors of Bangladesh. 

“The identification of actors is important for a number of reasons. There are many incidents when someone plays a cameo role or does one advertisement and declares themselves a professional actor. What happens then is that if there is any negative news regarding that one person, the whole industry faces a shameful situation because the news then identifies the person in question as an artiste, when in fact, they are not,” said Nasim. 

To alleviate these problems, all enlisted members need the identification. “Another reason is that through this ID card, our actors will get societal benefits, for healthcare, accommodation and such.” New actors or actors who haven't enlisted themselves yet will go through an interview session to become primary members, and after two years of supervision, will get permanent membership.