2023-05-12 16:38:10
DACCA, Bangladesh: Thousands of moviegoers flooded Dhaka’s cinemas on Friday for the release of India’s blockbuster ‘Pathaan’ starring huge star Shah Rukh Khan and the first Bollywood film to be widely distributed in Bangladesh. in over 50 years.
This spy film, directed by Siddharth Anand, broke all box office records when it was released in India in January.
Dhaka had banned Indian films shortly following its independence in 1971, bowing to lobbying by local filmmakers, even though India had supported Bangladesh in its war of independence from Pakistan.
“I’m excited, it’s the first time a Hindi film has been released in Bangladesh!” Sazzad Hossain, an 18-year-old student, said happily outside the Star Cineplex in central Dhaka, “I’m going to see Shah Rukh Khan on the big screen for the first time!”
The release of “Pathaan”, the first film with Shah Rukh Khan for four years, was eagerly awaited by his fans, many around the world.
The 57-year-old actor, nicknamed ‘King Khan’ and ‘Badshah’ in India, stars alongside actress Deepika Padukone and action comedian John Abraham.
Bangladeshi cinemas are in the doldrums, local production failing to compete with the splendor of Bollywood or seduce an aging Shakib Khan, the only profitable star of the national industry.
Some theaters have even illegally shown pornographic films to stay afloat. More than 1,000 have gone out of business in the past twenty years.
– “It was the fair” –
Under the posters of “Jinn”, a new Bangladeshi film at the Modhumita Cinema Hall, once the most prestigious room in Dhaka, dragged a few heroin addicts this week.
“Barely a few rows are occupied. Nobody comes to see these local arthouse films and mediocre plots,” says a cinema employee.
Yet cinemas have long been at the heart of Bangladeshi social life.
“This room was like a meeting place for the community of Old Dhaka,” Pradip Narayan told AFP in front of the Manoshi Complex, a century-old cinema transformed into a market in 2017.
“Women came at night to watch movies here. Our mothers and our sisters came from neighboring regions, and when the session ended at midnight or half past midnight, it was fair time here,” recalls this neighborhood merchant.
“A woman even gave birth in this room. Such was the craze for cinema at the time,” he continues.
In 2015, authorities tried to lift the ban on Indian films following two Bollywood films screened in a few theaters, but the anger of local stars forced them to end the initiative.
The government finally issued a decree last month authorizing the import of ten films a year from India or South Asia.
– “It would be a game-changer” –
“In Pakistan, the number of cinemas has dropped to 30-35. Then, they authorized the importation of Indian films in Hindi”, explained the Minister of Information, Hasan Mahmud “since then, there are regarding 1,200 and the quality of Pakistani films has also improved”.
“Pathaan” was released in 41 theaters across the country and many screenings in the capital are already sold out, says distributor Anonno Mamun.
Permission to screen Bollywood films would be “a game-changer”, he told AFP, “everyone likes Hindi films here. Many also like South Indian films.
Modhumita Cinema owner Mohammed Iftekharuddin, former president of the Bangladesh Theater Operators Association, hopes for a turnaround.
“I think 200 to 300 more theaters will reopen following this,” he predicts, “monopoly is destroying business. When there is competition, trade will work”.
But Bangladeshi filmmakers are worried and some are threatening to demonstrate wrapped in shrouds to announce the death of the local industry.
“They don’t know that the Mexican film industry was destroyed following the opening of the market to Hollywood productions,” argues Bangladeshi director Khijir Hayat Khan.
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