The Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), in its central executive committee meeting held on Thursday in Kolkata, decided to initiate an international campaign for restoration of the ancestral houses of legendary filmmakers Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen in Bangladesh. FFSI has decided to bring the issue to the notice of the Ministry of Culture, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
According to FFSI, Ray’s ancestral house, at Mashua, Katiadi, Kishoreganj, about 115 kilometre north-east from Dhaka, is now in a dilapidated condition. Film activists of Dhaka have appealed to the government through the district administration for its immediate renovation and preservation. However, no action has as yet been taken.
Ghatak’s ancestral house at Rajshahi is about 245 km north-west from Dhaka. Ghatak spent his childhood and young age there, studied at Rajshahi College and had a deep bond with the river Padma that flows by. Ghatak’s family had to leave East Pakistan, and this house, in 1948. The property was leased out in 1987-88 by the government to a private homoeopathic college. Most of the old structures were demolished to make way for a new building. Recently another one of the old rooms was knocked down to build a bicycle stand.
The film and cultural community of Rajshahi and Dhaka protested against this and human chains were formed in the two cities and also in Toronto in the last week of December in which many important filmmakers, film scholars, college and university teachers, students, and activists participated. Eminent film personalities of Bangladesh like Tanvir Mokammel, Morshedul Islam, Nasiruddin Yusuf Bacchu, Shameem Akhtar, among others, signed a petition to the government to save the three homes.
Sen’s ancestral house in Jhiltuli, Faridpur is about 130 km west from Dhaka. The house now belongs to a private owner. Many parts of the property have been demolished to build new structures. The original house, however, is still there and could be renovated and preserved.
FFSI is the apex body of the film societies network of India and was founded in 1959 under the stewardship of Ray himself, who also happened to be the president of the first executive committee of the FFSI.
FFSI is currently a member of the International Federation of Film Society (IFFS) that has its central office in Paris. Premendra Mazumder, vice president, FFSI, and the Asia Pacific secretary of the IFFS has been entrusted with the responsibility of taking up the issue at the international forum of IFFS.
