Popular actor Fazlul Rahman Babu says that the most of the teleplays aired these days disappoint him.
Babu, who had obtained popularity through his acting in hundreds of teleplays in his three decades of acting career, observes that many of these teleplays are quite typical in terms of storyline, content and performance.
‘The thing is that the actors, directors or script writers are doing so much work that their thinking and performance become repetitive; therefore, the plays become monotonous,’ Babu told New Age.
However, at the same time he defends the artistes with his belief that their remuneration is so poor that they have to work regularly to earn their bread and butter, hence quality gets compromised for quantity. ‘Since we are not sufficiently compensated for our work, we cannot afford to be selective regarding script or production; we have to take anything that comes along our way, write or produce whatever we can. In the process, our performance or production gets repetitive. Had we been well paid, we could have chosen to do only excellent work,’ the artiste expressed candidly.
Babu thinks still a large number of good tele-plays are being produced as the artistes genuinely love the industry and they are dedicated to their craft. ‘I believe the passion and devotion of the artistes in Bangladesh show to their work despite their financial condition and other hurdles is quite unique.’
However, Babu believes that the situation has potentials to improve if the television channels come forward. ‘The channels can purchase only high quality tele-plays at premium prices to raise the bar instead of settling for cheap low quality entertainment,’ said Babu, who started his television acting career with television’s adoption of Kazi Nazrul Islam’s Mrittu Khuda in the form of a drama serial in 1991.
Babu who had commenced his acting career as a theatre artiste, still longs for theatre. ‘Theatre is my greatest pleasure. If someone asks me to choose between theatre and television any day, I would choose theatre,’ Babu is a member of Aranyak Natya Dal where he performed in different productions including Nankar Pala, Pathar and Moyur Shinghashan.
Beside theatre and television plays, Fazlul Rahman Babu also wants to work in films. ‘I want to work in films but not in stereotypical commercial and melodramatic films,’ stated Babu, who also believes that nowadays a few directors are making good films but they are not large in number.
-With New Age input
