I feared Shilpakala Academy might also be 'affected': DG Syed Jamil

In the face of a demonstration by a group of people at the National Theatre Hall of Shilpakala Academy in the capital on Saturday, organisers were forced to stop the show of the play ‘Nityapuran’ midway.

Though the show had initially started despite obstruction from the demonstrators, when they started demonstrating again outside the gate later, director general of the academy Syed Jamil Ahmed spoke to the members of theatre company, ‘Desh Natok’ and decided to stop the show, stated the people who were present there.

The Shilpakala Academy faced backlash on social media in this incident. Later, the director general of Shilpakala Academy joined a virtual press conference on Sunday morning to talk about the reasons for stopping the show, the situation there and what they could do at that time.

Syed Jamil Ahmed said that the decision to stop the play mid-show had to be taken “considering the security” of the audience. From seeing the situation, he had feared that the Shilpakala Academy “might also get affected”.   

In Syed Jamil Ahmed’s words, “There have been attacks on Shilpakala Academies in 22 places around the country in recent times. I kept those in mind. And, there was an audience inside the hall. What if someone from the agitated crowd were to attack even the audience? So, we stopped the show considering the safety of the audience. I then went inside the theatre and apologised to the audience.”

Witnesses present at the scene of the incident said that selling of tickets for the play started Safternoon. Later around 6:00 pm in the evening, a group of men started demonstrating in front of the gate of Shilpakala Academy claiming ‘Desh Natok’ troupe member Ehsanul Aziz Babu to be an “aide of fallen Awami League”.

Later when director general of the academy, Syed Jamil Ahmed went out and calmed the demonstrators down, the show started as scheduled. However, the protesters gathered around in front of the main gate of the National Theatre Hall and started demonstrating again. At one point, when they tried to barge inside by breaking the gate, the director general spoke to the members of ‘Desh Natok’ theatre group and decided to stop the show.

Describing the incident Syed Jamil Ahmed said, “There’s a jatra (folk theatre) fest going on at the Mukta Mancha of Suhrawardy Udyan at the initiative of the Shilpakala Academy. I was there along with theatre department director Faiz Zahir. Hearing of a demonstration going on in front of the Theatre Hall, I rushed there and talked to the demonstrators.”

“They said Ehsanul Aziz Babu was an aide of autocracy. They would not let his theatre troupe hold a show. I reasoned with them saying that 20 or so members of ‘Desh Natok’ had also actively participated in the mass uprising of July and August. Some of them suffered bullet injuries also.”

Syed Jamil Ahmed continued, “Initially they had agreed to the reasoning and we told the organisers to start the show. However, they started demonstrating again later and they were agitated.”

Commenting that a concern had arisen of the “Shilpakala Academy being affected”, Syed Jamil Ahmed said, “I even told them that they have to face me to go inside. Then some of them went around me and rushed inside climbing over the walls. When they breached the gate, we spoke to the members of ‘Desh Natok’ and decided to stop the show.”

The Shilpakala Academy also faced backlash for not seeking assistance from the law enforcement forces.

On the question of why the assistance of law and order enforcement agencies was not requested at the time of the incident, Syed Jamil Ahmed said, “It has been only a few days since there were shots fired. We didn’t want any more suppression. There were two people with bullet injuries from the July-August movement among those who had come there to demonstrate.”

Syed Jamil Ahmed has also expressed his hopes of building a “pro-people Shilpakala Academy” with hearty efforts from the public and not under the guard of the law enforcement forces.

The director general said, “I fought a battle yesterday. I tried hard so that the show was held. But I lost. I have lost only one battle but I have not lost the war yet.”

When asked why no assistance was requested from the army despite them being positioned inside the academy premises, Syed Jamil Ahmed countered that with another question, “Would you stop them applying force or persuade them with words? Some of those who had come there have suffered bullet injuries. They shared their sufferings. Would it have been right to position the army against them? As I saw it fit, this was not the place for the army.”

Towards the end of the episode, an army officer as well as two army vehicles had arrived there, said Syed Jamil Ahmed.

He stated that he didn’t want to put the army and the public face to face with each other.

Ehsanul Aziz Babu of theatre group ‘Desh Natok’ on 17 October wrote in a post on his Facebook, “Let us all save this country and thwart these anti-Bangladesh, anti-independence Rajakars chanting the slogan ‘Joy Bangla’.”

Along with the post Babu had also shared a photo, where photographs of the chief adviser as well as other advisers of the interim government have been “edited to don them with Jinnah skull cap” and they have been labelled as ‘Rajakars’.

According to Syed Jamil Ahmed’s words, some people gathered in front of the National Theatre Hall, centering that Facebook post.

The DG of the Shilpakala Academy said, “The post which had been published is extremely distasteful. I have told this to Babu also. I told him to do theatre with rationality instead of publishing such distasteful posts on Facebook and to criticise the government through his plays.”

Syed Jamil Ahmed believes, after all, the public themselves have to protect the Shilpakala Academy.

He also talked about his dream of establishing the Shilpakala Academy as a pro-people institution. “The public themselves have to take responsibility for the Shilpakala Academy. Not under the guard of the army, it should be the public protecting the Shilpakala. We want a people-friendly Shilpakala.”

Syed Jamil Ahmed also said, “Many such theatre troupes have staged their plays here in the last one month, where there were questions raised regarding them. My colleagues and I have stated that they must be allowed to stage their plays. The audience will watch their plays and decide if they want to watch their plays or not.”

“Those theatre groups did stage their plays after all. And there were no issues. There was no objection regarding Desh Natok’s play ‘Nityapuran’ either. The agitated crowd had objections about only one person. Later, they raised the demand for the shows of ‘Desh Natok’ to be stopped as well,” added Syed Jamil Ahmed.

The director general of Shilpakala Academy then said, “I reasoned with them that no one should suppress the voice of the Shilpakala Academy. We don’t want to become an autocrat like Sheikh Hasina. In fact I myself have protested against autocracy through my plays. I was even able to reason with them twice but then I couldn’t keep up anymore.”