In honour of the upcoming centenary of renowned Bangladeshi educationist and playwright Munier Choudhury, theatre group Theatre has announced this year's Munier Chowdhury Award and Mohammad Zakaria Memorial Award recipients.

The prestigious Munier Choudhury Award will be bestowed upon the distinguished stage actor and singer Shimul Yousuf, while the Mohammad Zakaria Memorial Award will be awarded to Jahangir Alam, a talented actor from the troupe Prachyanat, reads a press release.

Since 1989, the Munier Choudhury Award has been presented annually to a senior, accomplished artiste, while the Mohammad Zakaria Memorial Award, established in 1997, honours emerging talents in the theatre landscape.

Interestingly, Shimul Yousuf was a previous recipient of the Zakaria Memorial Award in 1999, and this year she will be honoured with the Munier Choudhury Award.

The Munier Choudhury Award comes with a cash prize of Tk 50,000, while the Zakaria Memorial Award carries a prize of Tk 25,000.

Ramendu Majumdar, the organisational director of Theatre, shared with bdnews24, "Last year, we announced the recipients of both the awards, but we couldn't formally hand them over. This year, we plan to host a ceremony where we will present both 2023 and 2024 awards. The event date will be announced soon."

In 2023, Kamaluddin Nilu was selected for the Munier Choudhury Award, while Bakar Bakul for the Zakaria Memorial Award.

Majumdar added that starting next year, the awards will be presented annually. He explained, "Typically, we give these honours around Munier Choudhury's birth anniversary, but due to the Covid pandemic, we couldn't hold the event in 2020."

He continued, "In 2021, we hosted a special event marking Munier Choudhury's 96th birth anniversary, where we presented awards for the previous two years. In 2022, we followed the same pattern, awarding the honours to two distinguished artistes from different generations, Lucky Enam and Sayik Siddiqui."

These prestigious awards celebrate excellence and dedication to the performing arts, honouring both the veterans who have shaped the landscape and the young talents who continue to carry the torch forward.

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