By IANS
Dhaka : Authorities in Bangladesh have teamed up with the country’s film industry to crack down on piracy and illegal addition of censored footage displaying vulgarity, and a joint task force has made some arrests.
The task force has been working to deal with the twin issues of piracy and obscenity confronting “Dhaliwood” – a name to rhyme with Hollywood for the Dhaka-based film industry, The Daily Star said Friday.
In a disturbing trend, censored footages, called ‘cut pieces’ that are meant to be destroyed, were added to the films secretly.
Several filmmakers stopped making films, as they could not compromise with the ongoing trend of vulgarity in the mainstream cinema.
Even the audience, especially the middle class stopped going to the movie theatres.
The lead was partly taken by state run- Film Development Corporation (FDC). Its managing director ANM Badrul Amin held several meetings with prominent personalities in and outside the industry to stop what he called “burgeoning vulgarity in our mainstream cinema.”
The ‘cut pieces’ were publicly set on fire.
“The task force is supposed to destroy these ‘cut pieces’, arrest the people involved with this activity and also arrest individuals involved with video piracy,” Amin told a gathering of film industry attended by several marquee names.
On filming of obscene scenes, leading actress Shabnoor said those filming them were not the real filmmakers but their assistants and ‘extras’.
She claimed that none of the popular directors, actors and technicians was involved. However, when the task force were arresting the people involved with ‘cut pieces’, news was published that said film stars have been arrested. This tarnishes our image,” Shabnoor complained.
Renowned filmmaker Chashi Nazrul Islam said, “Over the years we have been waiting for such actions against the culprits, who have been making obscene movies for their business interest. We are pleased at the current drive by the task force. Kudos to ANM Badrul Amin, managing director of FDC, in particular.”
“Senior actors including Razzak, Kabori, Faruk, Probir Mitra and ATM Shamsuzzaman who left the industry are coming back, which is a positive sign. I believe that unless the whole scenario changes, the current actions against obscenity in films should continue for a few years under the current leadership of FDC,” popular actor Manna said.