City Desk :
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said films were a powerful media to effect social change. “It creates role models, values and culture,” he said this on Thursday while speaking at a function of actors and technicians of the film “Ora Egarojon”, a pioneering film based on the Liberation War.
The minister said that the cinema had suffered a lot during the successive military rules but under the visionary leadership of Sheikh Hasina the government was pledge-bound to restore its lost glory. The cinema industry was facing decline, technologically, as well he said adding that the advent of television and internet had brought new challenges for movies but it is nothing unique to Bangladesh.
Other countries have faced similar problems but many of them have faced it with vigor, courage and most importantly, innovation. “We, too, should feel encouraged by their success,” he said.
Recalling the past, he said when photography was invented a lot of people said painting would be dead but painting changed for the better and created an even bigger market.
“The same was said when television came. But cinema survived. The content has to change and film makers have to come up with narratives different from what is being shown on TV channels and the internet, the minister observed. “If that does not happen then it will be difficult,” he said.
He also referred to piracy and said the government was thinking of ways to crack down on it, effectively.
Inu highlighted the research being done by the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) and said they were working on the problems of the film industry.
He appealed to the stakeholders to invest in Research and Development (R&D) to find ways to overcome the predicament. “If other countries could do it why can’t we, “he said rhetorically.
Information Minister Hasanul Haq Inu said films were a powerful media to effect social change. “It creates role models, values and culture,” he said this on Thursday while speaking at a function of actors and technicians of the film “Ora Egarojon”, a pioneering film based on the Liberation War.
The minister said that the cinema had suffered a lot during the successive military rules but under the visionary leadership of Sheikh Hasina the government was pledge-bound to restore its lost glory. The cinema industry was facing decline, technologically, as well he said adding that the advent of television and internet had brought new challenges for movies but it is nothing unique to Bangladesh.
Other countries have faced similar problems but many of them have faced it with vigor, courage and most importantly, innovation. “We, too, should feel encouraged by their success,” he said.
Recalling the past, he said when photography was invented a lot of people said painting would be dead but painting changed for the better and created an even bigger market.
“The same was said when television came. But cinema survived. The content has to change and film makers have to come up with narratives different from what is being shown on TV channels and the internet, the minister observed. “If that does not happen then it will be difficult,” he said.
He also referred to piracy and said the government was thinking of ways to crack down on it, effectively.
Inu highlighted the research being done by the Press Institute of Bangladesh (PIB) and said they were working on the problems of the film industry.
He appealed to the stakeholders to invest in Research and Development (R&D) to find ways to overcome the predicament. “If other countries could do it why can’t we, “he said rhetorically.
