Bangladesh is in the news these days after Sheikh Hasina resigned from the post of Prime Minister. Sheikh Hasina is the person who opened the way for the release of Hindi films in Bangladesh. Actually, Bangladesh had banned the release of Indian films in 1971.
Sheikh Hasina did the work of removing this ban in 2023, because the film industry there was in a very poor condition. Shahrukh Khan’s film ‘Pathan’ was the first Indian film to be released in Bangladesh 51 years after the ban was lifted.
Talking about Bangladeshi film industry, it is called Dhallywood. The film capital of this industry is Dhaka. While on an average 2000 films are made every year in India, in Bangladesh only 70-100 films are made in a year.
In the 90s, every film there was a copy of Hindi films. To attract the audience to the theatres, after the year 2000, the filmmakers also resorted to obscene films, due to which the film industry got marginalized and has not been able to recover from it till now.
More than 1000 theaters closed in Bangladesh
After independence, the government of Bangladesh decided in 1972 that they would not allow any foreign film to be shown in their country. The logic behind the government’s decision was that it would promote local films there. However, this decision backfired.
During the period of 80-90, such films could not be made in Bangladesh which could entertain the audience. At that time the trend of copying was in full swing in Dhallywood. Almost every other film was made by copying from Hindi films. The producers just wanted Bengali films to continue running in theatres.
In the 90s, there were about 1500 cinema halls in Bangladesh, but due to the stereotypical Bengali films, the audience stopped going to the theatre.
According to a report by Money Control, more than 1000 theaters have been locked in Bangladesh for the last 20 years. Most cinema hall owners converted their theaters into shopping centers or apartments. In such a situation, by the year 2000, the makers were faced with the problem of how to attract the public’s attention towards the films.