BFDC promotes hotels, resorts and Darjeeling!

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Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC), which is supposed to promote Bangla films has been busy in promoting hotels, motels, resorts and even several tourist destinations in Darjeeling in India. The social media pages of the organization are also in extreme sorry state, as its page on Linkedin does not display photographs of legendary and eminent directors, actors and technicians. Instead, the Linkedin page of FDC will give an impression as if the industry is controlled by some youngsters. In contrary, social media pages of film development organizations in India and other countries always proudly portray the photographs and details of senior directors, artists and technicians, along side those legendary and eminent figures. Visiting the Facebook and Linkedin pages of FDC would clearly prove, this organization and the entire film sector is in dire crisis, particularly because the leadership has gone to wrong and extremely incapable hands.

Linkdin page of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation

Despite the fact that Bangladesh Film Development Corporation, which is popularly known as FDC has been surprisingly promoting hotels and resorts instead of promoting Bangla films. On the Facebook Page of FDC it is found that organization is busy in promoting private-owned hotels, motels and resorts in Bangladesh. But the most surprising fact it, FDC also has been busy in promoting Senchal Lake, Cactus Garden etcetera in Darjeeling, India. When the matter was brought into the attention of FDC authorities, they could not give any satisfactory answer.

Linkedin page of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) surprisingly does not feature photographs of any of the legendary and eminent filmmakers, actors or technicians, although this Linkedin Page is pretended to have been set up by the government.

FDC goes into the hands of hoteliers

Despite the fact that BFDC earlier declared of constructing multi-storey buildings with facilities such as food courts, swimming pool, indoor shooting etcetera, the entire compound is actually going into the grips of hotelier construction of Five-Star hotels are currently undergoing. It is easily assumed, once these five-star hotel project are completed, activities of FDC, especially film related activities will be stopped and the entire area will be vacated for the hotel purpose. But surprisingly the recent-past president of Bangladesh Film Directors Association, Mushfiqur Rahman Gulzar welcomed the construction of five-star hotels inside FDC premises stating: “Modern facilities are a must for today’s films. A well-designed multi-purpose building will be helpful”

Facebook Page of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation promotes hotels, resorts and even Indian tourism sites

Senior director Sohanur Rahman Sohan questioned the rationale behind the move, saying ‘A multi-purpose commercial building will destroy FDC which we know as a film hub. Why would a government institute need to construct buildings to earn money?’

But, despite objection from eminent filmmakers such as Sohanur Rahman Sohan, several film directors were already seen busy in lobbying in getting allocation of shop or food mart inside the five-star hotel project on FDC premise.

For decades, association offices inside Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) have been dodging utility bills amounting to millions of takas. According to information, Film Director’s Association alone has not paid electricity bills amounting to over BDT 500,000 during the past many years, while BFDC authorities did not take any steps in recovering these dues from the association offices.

Despite the fact of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation being a Key Point Installation (KPI), it has allowed several organizations such as Film Director’s Association, Film Producers & Distributors Association etc., in running offices inside the premises which were originally allocated only for using as library purposes. On investigation it was found, Film Director’s Association has been using the space mainly for its office. Most importantly, Film Director’s Association does not have any office in the city except for its illegal office inside BFDC. Similarly, other organizations, except Bangladesh Film Producers and Distributors Association, are using their library space for office purpose, which is totally illegal.

On investigation it was also found that none of the association offices inside BFDC are paying utility bills, including electricity bills for decades. When the matter was brought into the attention of the Ministry of Information, an official said, they were unaware of those association offices not paying such a large amount of electricity bills for years. The official further said, none of the associations are supposed to run offices in the spaces allocated only for library purpose.

When the matter of brought into the attention of Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) authorities, they said, the matter will be investigated after the Eid and those associations will be asked to immediately clear all utility bills. It also said, associations are not supposed to run office activities in the space allocated for library purpose.

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