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An evening with Arun Chowdhury

A man with multifaceted talent

SHILPI MAHALANOBISH
WHEN I first came to Dhaka, I never really had the desire to become a playwright or a writer. In fact, I wanted to be a scientist and join the NASA. This was the only dream I bore in my heart when I came to Dhaka for further studies. When I was in Comilla, I used to write rhymes for Ganokantha. I used to read a lot but never planned to be a writer. In 1975, I sent a story to the DUCSU competition and got the first prize. The Editor of the literature page of Bichitra, Sheikh Abdur Rahman and also one of the judges of that competition, at his own initiative published the story in Bichitra. I was so inspired that I went to Bichitra with another story the following week. Gradually, I was introduced to the famous journalists of that time like Mahmud Shafiq, Kazi Zawad and Mainul Ahsan Saber.
With time the readers of Bichitra started expressing their satisfaction and I felt that not only the editors or journalists read my write-ups but readers found them interesting as well. This instilled a feeling of responsibility inside me. However, my education was being hampered as I began to frequent the newspaper offices. I organised film clubs and watched good movies in cine clubs. I wanted to study filmmaking but there was no good institute here and I was not in a position to go to Pune. So when one of my friends introduced me to Momtaz Ali, I did not miss the opportunity to work with him. I worked with him for two and half years and worked in many films like Kudrat, Nalish and a half-done film Naseeb.
After some time, I began suffering from a sense of insecurity in the film world, the numbers of good releases were very few. There was work
as long as I was working under the director in a film otherwise there was nothing to do. I joined Bichitra in 1986. I also wrote articles in the fortnightly Tarokalok and worked as a journalist in the Ananda Bichitra for eight long years from 1986 to 1994.
My first book was a collection of stories titled
Shakal Belar Phool in 1989. And I wrote a novel on the football players titled Shat Number.
Eventualy in 1990, television producer Atiqul Haque Chowdhury asked me to write plays for the television. I wrote a drama titled Abeg in 1991and wrote one drama a year as it was hard for me to give more time to writing. I started to write more for freelance productions, popularly known as package dramas, as the remuneration was quite good. Though demand for my dramas declined to the BTV producers, the freelancers were eager for my write-ups. Shudhu Tomar Jonno was my first package drama, starring Suborna Mustafa and Afzal Hossain who worked together after a gap of eight long years. Aral, the first tele-film of our country was also written by me.
Gradually in 1997, I moved into directing. My first directed drama was a serial. So far, I have written and directed 20 dramas, 10 serials and 2 tele-films, and have directed 10 dramas and one serial written by other authors.
It is my dream to make films by applying all my talents, hard work and potentials and of course with a good team. A director cannot make a film without team effort.
The things I really care for are fulfilment of my wishes, proper entertainment for the audience. These things are easy to narrate in stories but hard to depict in drama and get producers for them. But at the end of the day I think my real evaluators are my audience.
Being a journalist has helped me a lot. Freelance work has been possible due to my profession only but even if I were not a journalist, I would have written stories and novels.