The Ministry of Information has announced it will build 26 new cinema halls in 26 districts of Bangladesh. The announcement was recently made by the ministry’s Additional Secretary (Development), Mir Md Nazrul Islam.
The new proposed budget for FY2019-20 has also allocated a budget for 26 new state of the art information complexes along with the cinema halls.
The ministry will also start building a 15 storied complex on the Bangladesh Film Development Corporation (BFDC) premises in Dhaka. The complex will be equipped with a modern cinema hall, shooting floors, and other facilities for filmmakers.
The Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitor Association demanded changes to "the regulations to distribute foreign films and to raise the number of locally produced films," at a recent press conference on Wednesday, March 13, at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity. They had released a detailed press statement with these demands and if these demands were not met by the government they said they would start a strike from April 12, closing every cinema hall in Bangladesh.
The declaration came as only 35 locally produced films hit theatres last year and most of them were commercially unsuccessful. Cinema hall owners had already been shutting down their theatres over the years, for lack of commercially successful films.
Later on, the government announced that they would gradually meet the demands of cinema hall owners and they postponed their strike. These recent announcements will rejuvenate the dying film industry, according to ministry officials.