Global Courant 2023-05-12 19:00:00
DHAKA – Thousands flocked to cinemas in Dhaka on Friday as actor Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbuster Pathaan hit the big screens, the first Bollywood film to be fully released in Bangladesh in more than half a century.
The action-packed spy thriller broke box office records when it opened in India in January, and the star has a huge fan base around the world.
But Dhaka banned films from its neighbor shortly after independence in 1971, despite lobbying efforts from local filmmakers, despite India supporting the country in its independence war with Pakistan.
“I am so excited because a Hindi film is being released in Bangladesh for the first time,” said Sazzad Hossain, 18, at a cinema in the capital.
“We are all Shah Rukh Khan fans. For the first time I am watching Shah Rukh Khan on a giant screen.”
Bangladeshi cinemas are in a serious decline, with poor quality local films unable to match or attract audiences to the glitz and glamor of Bollywood, and aging actor Shakib Khan the only bankable star.
Some movie theaters even turned to illegally showing pornography to stay viable, but more than 1,000 have closed their doors in the past 20 years, many of which have been converted into malls or apartments.
At the Modhumita Cinema Hall, once Dhaka’s most luxurious cinema, heroin addicts sat outside this week in front of posters for Jinn, a newly released Bangladeshi film.
“I haven’t seen such a poor audience in years,” said a cinema worker.
“There are only a few rows full. Nobody watches these local art films or films with bad storylines.”
Cinemas used to be a mainstay of Bangladeshi social life.
“This hall was like a great meeting place of the Old Dhaka community,” Mr Pradip Narayan told AFP at the Manoshi Complex, a 100-year-old cinema that was converted into a market in 2017.
“Women came here at night to watch movies. Our mothers and sisters from neighboring areas used to come here and when the show ended at midnight or 12:30 at night, it was like a fair here.
“A woman even gave birth to a child in this cinema room. That was the craze for movies back then.
Authorities tried to lift the ban on Indian films in 2015 when two Bollywood hits – Wanted and 3 Idiots – were screened, but protests from local film stars forced cinemas to halt the shows.
Finally, in April, the government issued a decree allowing the importation of 10 films a year from India or South Asian countries.
