Hadn't the OTT platforms or streaming services kept winning the hearts of the movie buffs in the last eight years, the cinema in Bangladesh would have all but left the country's entertainment media. Many may not agree to call the cinema a fun-filled audio-visual medium. To them, cinema is one of the basic pillars of the modern global culture. The power and appeal of movies has spellbound the audiences to such an extent that the seemingly undying stage-plays have started feeling threatened. This threat came to the surface in the early 1920s, when the talkies or the sound film entered the movie scenario. This was the first time the cinema had absorbed the first threat to its existence. However, it soon proved a knee-jerk reaction. Both the mediums --- plays and movies, had their unique connoisseurs. The playhouses and movie theatres continued to get along side by side for almost one hundred years.
Despite movies' massively complicated and cumbersome making process, their huge investments etc, the medium's post-production dazzle and glitz, coupled with their ability to take the audiences to both hilarious and sombre realities, they eventually outshone the stage-bound plays. In both the developed and the poorer countries, theatre audiences had to give in to the movie-goers. It occurred mostly in the US, the UK and a few underdeveloped countries. The era of the golden days of the classic cinema was nearly over the by the 1970s.
In the modern world, certain technologies and their uses and rejection occur quite fast. The same may be the case with the cinema. After their long reign over the world, it's now in its phase of taking a back seat. In areas of their warm acceptance, the movies no longer count. It's because the whole gamut of the film-making technology has undergone a change. So has the movie-goers' taste. In the case of the sub-continent, for instance, the advanced film-makers in India and Bangladesh, have already chosen the latest movie-making technology. Those are being applied to the directorial style, the actors' performance, the films' exhibition devices, and, also the changing taste of the audiences. In Bangladesh in the year of 2022, going to watch a cinema resembles the experience of going through a movie directed by one of the French or Italian New Wave directors. The movies like 'Hawa', 'Poran', 'Damal' or 'Beauty Circus' have amply shown that the potential of the Bangladesh movie makers are far from being explored. Like in all other countries, the film industry in this country, too, had been dependent on the age-old movie-screening technology. The most remarkable of them was the cinemas' dependence on a dark and external sound-proof movie theatre. Even in the 1970s, the larger the size of a cinema hall was the greater the power of audience pulling it enjoyed. Without going into the nitty-gritty related to the movie projection, it can safely be said that the experience watching movies in most of the cinema-savvy cities, including Dhaka, has turned radically different. Not long ago, watching a movie inside an exceptionally large theatre having an extra-large movie screen would be considered going with the vogue. The trend nowadays is watching movies at the small multiplexes. Most of them operate on the large shopping-complex floors which can accommodate several movie theatres. However, a popular theatre can be transformed into a 'cinema hall'. In Dhaka, a sizeable number of movie theatres far from busy shopping complexes have already begun the work of being transformed into multiplexes, the focus being on the several movie-watching theatres to be located in a cluster.
Almost three-fourths of the movie theatres in the country have been shut down thanks to the alarming drop in the cinema-goers. The authorities these days are trying to wean them back to their old trade with focus on transforming them into audience-pullers called 'cineplexes'. If the trend spreads to all corners of the country, Dhaka being the centre, both the movie watchers and movie makers are seen welcoming the situation. If that happens in the Bangladesh cinema, the sector is in for a revolution of sorts. Many people close to the Bangladesh cinema think days are not far, when all sections of society will be feeling at home with the cineplex-based OTT (Over the Top) movies. Due to OTT being also a platform for audience-pulling web series, Bangladesh movies are also getting engaged in a kind of competition with the Bangla movies and web series made in India. Indian OTT movies have carved out a remarkably large chunk on OTT. The OTT streaming service has been pioneered by the US-sponsored Netflix. The US parent-company is based in California. It has franchises in the UK and a lot countries including Bangladesh. The Bangladesh OTT outlets include Chorki, Hoichoi, Bongo, Bioscope, Banglafix, Binge, Cinespot etc. An advantage of this platform is the movie serials here can be seen on episode basis. Moreover, it doesn't rob the audiences of their valuable time. OTT web movies, some cut into series, or weekly or daily segments, could be seen at home online for show-time fees.
A surprising aspect of the OTT individual movies or web series is its rising popularity among the younger audience. On being encouraged by the spontaneous audience response, the Bangladeshi makers of the full-length movies or web series, foresee a rejuvenation of the Dhaka-based cinema. Till now, except for a handful of full-length feature films, most of the ventures undertaken by young and budding directors have received warm welcome from the audience. It has provided the OTT makers with the necessary confidence, the dearth of which led to many talented directors to feel dejected and, eventually, say farewell to movies. It happened before the OTT era. Alas, the earlier creative makers couldn't see the making of simple-story, yet rich with strong-message, movies like 'Hawa' doing the rounds for 100 days on screen. Films like 'Beauty Circus', 'Poran' or 'Damal' may have failed to draw large audiences; but their names will remain carved in the country's movie history as contributors to the turnaround witnessed by the new-age cinema.
