Entertainment Report :
A stage play titled ‘Nityapuran’ by prominent theatre troupe ‘Desh Natok’ was stopped midway at the Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) in Dhaka on Saturday evening following protests by a group of people in front of the Academy’s gate. The incident came under heavy criticism on social media.
Describing the incident at a virtual press briefing on Sunday, Shilpakala Academy Director General Syed Jamil Ahmed said the decision to stop the play midway was made to ensure the “safety of the audience.”
The BSA Director General explained that given the circumstances, he feared that the Academy itself might have come under attack.
“Recently, 22 branches of Shilpakala Academy across the country came under attack. That weighed on my mind. With the audience inside the hall, I thought, what if the protesters attack them? Considering the safety and security of the audience, we decided to halt the show midway,” he said.
“I went inside and apologised to the audience,” he also said.
Eyewitnesses present at the time said at around 6:00pm on Saturday, a group of people started protesting in front of the Shilpakala gates, labelling Desh Natok’s member Ehshanul Aziz Babu “an accomplice of the Awami League.”
Later, Jamil Ahmed went and calmed down the protestors, and the play started. But the protestors regrouped in front of the gate and started protesting again, attempting to break into the venue. Narrating the incident, Jamil Ahmed said, “I have explained to them that more than 200 members of Desh Natok actively participated in the July-August mass uprising. Some also sustained gunshot wounds. First they accepted (what I said) and the play resumed. But later they started protesting again … Some people climbed over the wall and entered the complex. When the gate was broken, we decided to stop the play altogether after talking to the members of Desh Natok.” The BSA also faced criticism for not seeking assistance from law enforcement during the recent incident.
Regarding this, Jamil Ahmed explained, “We saw shooting very recently (referring to the July-August student protests). We didn’t want further repression. Among those protesting, two individuals had been shot during the July movement.”
When reporters asked why assistance was not requested from military personnel stationed inside the academy, he countered, “Would you stop them by force or through dialogue? Those who came here were already injured by gunfire and voiced their grievances. Was it right to pit the military against them? I felt this was not a situation for army intervention.”
