Television with a touch of heart

Ahsan Nawaz Babu

Continued from Vol 01 Issue 18

Samir Kushari

One of the best cinematographers of Bangladesh Television was Ahsan Nawaz Babu. He, along with his elder brother was freedom fighters. Babu's elder brother joined the liberation war with his group. From the first days of Pakistan Television, Babu was involved in many TV programmes. During the liberation war, Ahsan Nawaz Babu was one of the most important persons who conducted the guerilla operation at the DIT building. Najeebullah Jon and Mahbub Ali were members of that guerilla operation team. Najeebullah Jon and Ahsan Nawaz Babu have passed away while Mahbub Ali is with us. Bravery of the three TV employee freedom fighters never came to the spotlight on TV, yet BTV was never short of programmes related to independence. 
Ahsan Nawaz Babu's elder brother was killed in Sylhet. His grave is beside the Dhaka-Sylhet highway. Centered on that grave and his life as a freedom fighter, a drama named Baaganer Naam Malinichara was screened on TV. Directed

by Kazi Abu Zafar Siddique and written by Rabeya Khatun, a full BTV crew went to Sylhet to shoot the drama. Rather than just a drama, it became the first docudrama of Bangladesh Television, with Shonkor Shawjal playing the leading characters. As it was a docudrama, character research was done with much care. Ahsan Nawaz Babu involved himself with the production in every possible way. There are many other novels with the same title. Later, Ahsan Nawaz Babu played the leading role of another liberation war related drama that was directed by Atiqul Haque Chowdhury. 

Ahsan Nawaz Babu used to take photographs of TV programmes. Gradually he became a cinematographer. Almost at the same period another cinematographer, Samir Kushari, the son of renowned director Ranesh Kushari joined BTV. Samir Kushari joined BTV from the film industry, and the addition of these two experts was a crucial turn for BTV. They began to bring production to outdoors from studio. EFP (Electronic Film Production) camera just was introduced at BTV; EFP camera is known as ENG camera now. Outdoor shooting was unthinkable without Samir Kushari or Ahsan Nawaz Babu. That was also the beginning of recording a programme with only one camera. Before, everyone was used to a three-camera setup which didn't require actors to memorize the full dialogue. Now, most package drama productions that we watch are done using only one-camera system, but it was unthinkable back in those days.         
The writer is Managing Director, Channel i

Translated by Zia Nazmul Islam