Continued from vol 02, issue 07

ATN Bangla was working with Thaicom, a Thailand based Satellite Company, for their transmission back in the day. Following footsteps of ATN Bangla, Impress Telefilm also communicated with Thaicom initially. Impress Telefilm visited Singapore, since that is where broadcast equipment was available. They had access to Singapore's business entrepreneurs; Sazzad Hossain Roni was such a person who had contacts with different satellite companies. One day, he took me to a Satellite Company named Singtel. I was learning new words there like uplink, megahertz and satellite. A high official at Singtel showed us how they uplink any television program. India, at that time, used to uplink television programs from Singapore. On air television programs were controlled not by humans, but by robots at Singtel.

Sazzad also had very good connection with another company named Teleporte. They almost could not believe that companies from such a small country like Bangladesh were thinking of going for satellite channels. Unlike Singtel, Teleporte telecasting system was manually controlled in a small studio. It was similar to a VCR controlled broadcasting system; many channels were being broadcast in several VCR cassettes. After Teleporte and Singtel, I went to Thaicom alone, later Shykh Seraj accompanied me as well. Since ATN Bangla was already working with Thaicom, their officials were interested working with another Bangladeshi channel. An engineer was talking to us and he informed us that they have improved machineries quite a lot which will help channels broadcast programs with better output. We, the Impress Telefilm authority, were more concerned about whether cable operators of our country will help us or not if we telecast from a non-reputed satellite company. We were hopeful that the cable operator might help us if they get to know that another Bangladeshi channel is already working with this satellite company. Cable operators association was on the rise at that time in Dhaka. Following few other meetings with Thaicom, Shykh Seraj and I decided that our programs be telecast from first of October, 1999.

After we settled the satellite issue, we discussed plans on reaching the Bangladeshi audience easily. Hasan Kamrul Rakib and Sazzad Hossain Roni joined the discussion. These two Applied Physics graduates showed us a way out. Cable operators need a receiver and a Dish antenna to circulate the frequency of any particular program. We wanted that people could watch its program from the first day. It decided that it will provide every cable operator with a receiver so that they can circulate the frequency. Following this decision, we needed to buy receivers from overseas since there were not enough receivers in our country then. A high official from Thaicom helped us. The buying process of so many receivers was not an easy task, yet we expected that it would be done by September 7 because many other official works were needed before the telecast begin.

At that time, the technical support of the company was not enough to run a day long program. It needed to recruit more people and obviously support the satellite cost. Considering these issues, we realized that such an endeavor will need a lot of cash. We started looking for partners who think alike. Shamsul Haque was one of the well-wishers of Impress Group who knew our intentions beforehand. One day, he brought Robiul Islam to our office, who later joined as the eighth partner of Impress Telefilm.  The head office was at Shatinagar at that time. Since the new company would be totally different from the group itself, every director of the company agreed that it needed a new office, and the best location would be Shantinagar. The company hired a flat of Shahed Rahman at Siddeswari and the official journey began.

At that time, Inframe was the largest production house in Dhaka. The reputed and popular producers of that time used to produce their programs from Inframe. Anwar Hossain Bulu was one of the leading directors of Inframe at that time. He was also a great cameraperson. Any producer could rely on him for any production. Many of his assistants have come out to be actors and directors later on but he was the true maestro who is still involved in camerawork with great success.

Since popular directors and producers of that time used to work with Inframe, nobody showed their interest in working with Impress Telefilm. Therefore, for business reasons we knocked many new artists to direct programs. Abul Hayat was quite new in the media at that time. When we asked him to direct drama, he agreed after lots of consideration and thinking. He started with a drama named 'Harjit' which was written by Pronob Bhut starring Bipasha Hayat, Toukir Ahmed and Aly Zaker. Ferdous Hasan, another director, wrote some drama for television channels but never directed any drama until then. He was asked to direct his own drama 'Kagojer Bou'. Later on, these two great directors produced many significant dramas for BTV which gained massive popularity. Needless to say, both these two directors are well-known and considered to be greats. The scenario changed when popular writer Humayun Ahmed showed his interest in directing dramas for us; Abul Hayat, Toukir Ahmed and Ferdous Hasan were also directing simultaneously at that time.  

To be continued…

Translated by Mohammad Zahidul Islam