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Pradeep Dewanjee

In the newly born country called Bangladesh, a few people were responsible for starting a cultural revolution. Pradeep Dewanjee is one of them. A playwright and a director, Dewanjee has written quite a few plays like Rakosh (Rajnoitik Kollyan Shongstha), Obak Rajar Obak Desh and directed a theatrical adaptation of Tagore's Tasher Desh and Syed Shamsul Haque's Paayer Awaj Paoa Jai. This week the Star brings you the committed and publicity shy theatre personality who believes that if you don't have unconditional love and commitment for your country's history and people you should not try your hand in practicing literature.

Childhood Dream
I never had big ambitions like being a doctor or an engineer. My dream was rather simple; I wanted to be a shopkeeper with my daripalla.
 
First play
In 1977 I wrote my first play called Ashbei Shutham Shomoy. It was acclaimed with a national prize in the following year.

Biggest Achievement of your life
Recently I wrote a play called Baddhobhumi on the largest mass killing ground of our country situated in Pahartoli, Chittagong. Completing such a work gave me a heavenly satisfaction which I believe is my greatest achievement so far.

A Work Yet to Be Done
I believe as a playwright I have obligations to write plays which should talk about our country's history and the many sacrifice of its people. I am yet to write many plays based on the real incidents of our liberation war.

Inspiration
The people who struggle everyday for their living, without being defeated are my inspiration to go on.

Challenges that the theatre scene in Chittagong is facing these days
I believe that we have only one challenge and that is not having enough auditoriums in Chittagong. If we could have more auditoriums like Dhaka does, we would be able to go a long way with our plays.