Television with pleasure and rhythm

[Continued from last issue]

In the program Maloncho which was hosted by Mahamudun Nabi, two teenage artists called Fahmida Nabi and Samina Nabi were the first to perform in adult show.

Barkatullah as a producer always wanted to produce fruitful production. His wife Jinat Barkatullah is a country wide famous dance artist, and later on both of his daughters Kajori Barkatullah and Bijori Barkatullah went onto join in television media as well.

In the history of television the first ever hit television drama was “Shokal Shondha”.

The producer of this drama was Barkatullah. He even acted in 2-3 serials in television.

When Barkatullah joined television with him 2 other producers joined as well. One of them was Atiqul Haque Chowdhury and the other one was Syed Siddique Hossain. Later on Atiqul Haque Chowdhury become DDG in television. 

And Syed Siddique Hossain left his job in the middle and went to Maldives to become a teacher.

Before joining in television as a producer, Barkatullah performed as a dance artist in lots of program. And so at first he had planned on producing lots of dance programs.

Even if you don't have any support, if you have love and hospitality then you can surely gift the audience a great program and the biggest example for that is the yesteryear dance program. There wasn't any big studio like the one in Rampura. Also there was no usage of 3-4 cameras at that time. But still lots of dance program were organized in the small studio of DIT.

The first ever program to air in abroad was also a dance program. The name of the program was called “Ritur Ronge Aka”. Bangladesh is known as the place of 6 seasons. Through dance producer Mustafa Monwar would represent the 6 seasons.

The small DIT studio made in black and white had so many variations; to be able to put so many artists together in front of the camera can be made into a subject of thesis paper for anyone.

The first ever big dance program to be aired in television was called “Udoyacholer Pothe”. This dance program was made for the arrival of Prince Karim of Aga khan in Dhaka. At that time lots of live telecast programs were made. 

One time before the telecast of a dance program, it was found that the stage that was planned was not able to be executed.

At that time if any program was not aired in television then they had to explain themselves in Rawalpindi. And on top of that if one producer was not able to produce their program at that time then it would have been a matter of disgrace for them. When English movie was showcasing at that time, at that time the producer, artist and director came to a decision at the meeting. Abdullah Al Mamun was producing a drama in the evening. In that drama a large bronze plate was used as a prop. The plate was filled with water and was placed in the floor. And Mahmud Ahmed and Golam Mostafa, two of the cinematographer produced a moon like shape in the DIT wall.  The moon was created in such a way that its shadow could be seen in the water. And at the same time the dance artist face shadow could be seen in the water. All of this was created in 30 minutes. Even the dance artist was able to determine what will be the new dance form. The program was given a new name called “Chaader Shonge”.

The television audience at the same time was not able to realize how in short time of planning the producers were able to gift them a program. Most of the employees of NHK were present there in the studio. They were so much impressed on the works of the Bengali officials that they had sent letter to the higher officials to convince them as they would complete the whole work before the allocated time ends.

The writer is Managing Director, Channel i
Translated by Imtiaz Salim