One day, Humayun Ahmed called me and wanted to talk about working with Impress Telefilm. Khalid Mahmood Mithu and Jalal Ahmed used to work in most of our productions at that time. Humayun Ahmed wanted to work on package dramas, and he was already doing so with Inframe. Since Jalal Ahmed used to work in BTV and did not have time to accompany me, I went to the studio with Khalid Mahmood Mithu with me. I had prior contact with Humayun Ahmed and so was comfortable speaking to him. I informed him that we provide everything that Inframe does. Humayun Ahmed spoke less, as he does all the time, and said that he will visit our office one day. Following this conversation, Humayun Ahmed began to work with us and helped us grow in many aspects.

To work with a big producer brings good and bad experiences. We realized that we were not lucky enough to avoid the bad ones. Humayun Ahmed used to lose his temper even in subtle mismanagement issues and we used to get nervous. He was actually logical in every way and we realized it later that if we can work with this hard working man, our team efficiency will be heightened. Khalid Mahmood Mithu later appeared in Humayun Ahmeds dramas. Actually, Humayun Ahmed befriended many of our people with much adore and appraisal. Following his popularity among us, we wondered if we could make package dramas with him. He was busy only with dramas in those days but also agreed to make magazine programs. The typical magazine program meant songs from popular and well known singers but Humayun Ahmed stepped into something different. He invited Bari Siddique to sing in his magazine program named 'Ronger Baroi'. The program was anchored by actor Asaduzzaman Nur and sponsored by Keya Cosmetics. People admired the program a lot.

Humayun Ahmed used to follow be very punctual all the time. His punctuality forced us to be better organized! He was inspiring. He also made music programs with singer Feroza Begum. Since Humayun Ahmed was involved in the program, Feroza Begum helped in camera takes a lot. He is also credited with the production of first Telefilm of our country, “Nitu Tomake Valobashi”. There were a few songs by Sabina Yasmin in this Telefilm. The telefilm was shot at a house where his friend used to live. During the shooting, he accommodated the dwellers of that house in a five-star hotel. When Humayun Ahmed used to work with Impress Telefilm, his own production house Nuhash Chalachchitra was an established production house, and viewers found many programs of joint venture of these two companies on television.

It is rarely the case that Impress Telefilm has started working with a program and it went unfinished. I want to mention two dramas which went unfinished. First one was a drama named 'Na' which was directed by Kayes Chowdhury and written by Al Mansur. Another program was by Mishuk Munir, the son of Munir Chowdhury, Anal Ryhan, the son of Jahir Rayhan and Moinul Ahsan Saber, the son of poet Ahsan Habib.

The number of producers working with us was increasing day by day. Every day, more than ten shooting units were on their feet. We did not have so many cameras, so it rented out many cameras from many other companies. At that time, Humayun Ahmed started working with a mega serial named “Shabuj Shathi”. Aly Zaker and Asaduzzaman Nur's company Asiatic was involved in the project which was sponsored by John Hopkins University. Impress Telefilm received a check of 32,000 taka at first which was signed by Aly Zaker and Asaduzzan Nur. Though the check was from these two persons, the work that we did was mainly for Bangladesh Diabetic Sameeti, BIRDEM. Two people were in the center of the feature that we made for BIRDEM: Mostafa Kamal Syed and Dr. Aurup Ratan Chowdhury. ATM Samsuzzaman played the lead role of this feature. Shamir Kushori worked as a cameraperson and Mosaddek Hasan worked as its editor.

It was known that Humayun Ahmed will work with us for his drama “Aj Robibar”, but, there was a problem. We never worked outside Dhaka before at a stretch but “Aj Robibar” needed to be shot in Gazipur for over two weeks. Actors like Zahid Hassan, Afsana Mimi and many others arrived at the spot but it was very difficult to manage accommodation and food in a location like that. We tried our best to provide everything needed and the local villagers also helped us a lot in this regard.  

To be continued…

The writer is
Managing Director, Channel I,
Translated by Mohammad Zahidul Islam