Ishrat Nishat Natya Puraskar coming January 19

In memory of noted thespian, Ishrat Nishat, a new award for theatre actors has been established. On Tuesday, nominees for the Ishrat Nishat Natya Puraskar were announced at a press conference in Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The award will be given annually, in eight categories.

During the press conference, it was announced that a neutral board and a national committee—consisting of the country's renowned theatre personalities—would be established to select the nominees and winners of the award. The jury board has already completed evaluation for the first batch of awards by watching 17 new plays, staged between 2021 and 2022.

Now, winners of the award will be announced on January 19. The honourable State Minister of Cultural Affairs, KM Khalid, MP will be attending the award ceremony as the chief guest.

Selina Shelly, coordinator of the Ishrat Nishat Natya Puraskar 2022, shared at the press conference that the award had been created to inspire newer stage plays to come to the forefront in the local theatre scene. The awards will also contain a financial honorarium between BDT 25,000-BDT 1 lakh each.

The Ishrat Nishat Natya Puraskar implementation committee consists of Nasiruddin Yousuff, M Hamid, Lucky Enam, Ghulam Quddus and Masum Reza, among others.

On the other hand, the jury members consist of Professor Abdus Selim, AKM Yusuf Hassan, Debaprasad Debnath, Wahida Mollick Jolly, Dr Kamaluddin Kabir, Mohammad Ali Haider and Irin Pervin Lopa.