Student Research

This study explores the phenomena of commercialization of Television in Bangladesh, discusses the reason behind commercialization, finds the consequences and makes the recommendation for developing an effective public serving media system. This research employs a qualitative approach where in-depth interviews are taken and discourse analysis of policy documents which are relevant to the process of commercialization of television are used to collect data. Television, in our country, was commercialized in the time of its establishment in 1964. During the Pakistan period, it was an autonomous organization and was appreciated for making a profit as much as it could. After independence in 1971, in spite of being a state-owned organization, it continued the legacy and in the late 90s the commercialization, privatization and liberalization led the private businessman to take over the television market. This study provides a complete understanding of the beginning and progression of commercialization of television in Bangladesh.

This study aims to understand the causes and consequences of television and new media convergence in Bangladesh. It employs a qualitative method of study where in-depth interviews of people working in the television sector have been taken to collect the research data and the study analyzes the research data from the perspective of the political economy of communication. The study finds that, increasing audience reach, attracting advertisers and generating revenues, institutional policies, competition with other TV channels, advantage of new media use, new media preferences by both audiences and advertisers etc. are the causes behind the convergent environment in the television industry of Bangladesh. Again, the study also finds some notable consequences of convergence among which increase in manpower and management cost, increase in online audiences, considerable audience feedbacks, extra facilities for online audiences, revenue generations, changes in the making of TV programs, decrease in mainstream TV audiences etc. are noteworthy.

The documentary films of Bangladesh are cultural artifacts that reflect and shape the socio-political and cultural context in which they are produced. This study investigates the construction of Bengali national identity in the liberation war-themed documentaries of Bangladesh, considering national identity as a construct of contemporary nationalism. Grounded in the perspectives of two prominent modern theorists of nationalism, Benedict Anderson and Partha Chatterjee, the research employs the textual analysis method of Stuart Hall to analyze three liberation war-themed documentaries: Stop Genocide, Muktir Gaan, and 1971. The findings highlight the portrayal of Bengali national identity in these documentary films. They portray Bangladesh as a sovereign nation-state with defined territorial boundaries, celebrate culture as a unifying and inspiring force, and effectively convey collective cultural memories and traumatic experiences during the Liberation War. Moreover, the liberation war-themed documentaries represent the Bengalis as patriotic, courageous, secular, humanistic, united as a nation, and bound by a familial bond. This research, therefore, significantly contributes to understanding the role of liberation war-themed films in preserving the Bengali national identity.

This study comprehensively investigates the emergence of OTT platforms in Bangladesh. It explores the types of content available on the platforms and analyzes the factors that impact their selection, production, and distribution. It also identifies the challenges independent content creators face while working on this new medium. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with content creators, producers, and policy experts, the research further sheds light on the distinguishing characteristics of OTT content, its production and acquisition processes, and monetization strategies. The study finds that technological advancements, changing consumer preferences, and the limitations of conventional mediums have played a significant role in the emergence of OTT platforms in Bangladesh. OTT platforms here mainly offer live streaming, VOD, and user-generated content. Under VOD, web series have emerged as a hallmark of OTT, and in terms of genres, thrillers have emerged as new and dominating content. The production and acquisition processes rely heavily on consumer data and a bureaucratic process emphasizing a systemic way of making and acquiring content while maintaining business objectives. However, looking for experience and success records, constant interference from the platforms, ownership concentrations, economic constraints, and political pressures challenge independent content creators, their artistic freedom, and diverse content creation. Overall, this research provides valuable insights into the changing media landscape in Bangladesh, benefiting industry stakeholders and policymakers.

This study examines the representation of women in Bangladeshi OTT platforms, shedding light on its implications for gender roles and identities. Employing textual analysis method, the study explores the dominant gender stereotypes present in Bangladeshi OTT content. This research focuses on four carefully selected OTT contents - August-14, Morichika, Shodor Ghater Tiger, and Sundor Chaan- employing the theoretical lens of Male Gaze Theory. The study delves into how women are portrayed across various dimensions, such as their roles, occupations, appearance, and personality traits within these specific OTT contents. The findings reveal a complex interplay between progressive elements challenging societal norms and regressive tendencies reinforcing traditional gender roles. While particular series challenge societal norms by granting sexual autonomy to female characters or exposing exploitation pervasive within the media industry itself, they inadvertently succumb to patterns of sexual objectification or reinforce traditional gender roles. Power relations between male and female characters are explored meticulously, illuminating unequal relationships entrenched in domination and abuse. This research underscores the need for nuanced representations that promote gender equality within Bangladeshi OTT content. By interrogating these representations, this research contributes to our understanding of how women are depicted in media narratives on emerging digital platforms in Bangladesh.

This thesis examines the representation of romance in Bangladeshi commercial cinema from the 1970s to the 2010s. It analyzes how dominant ideologies of the capitalist-patriarchal society are reproduced through cinema's melodramatic narratives of romance. The study draws on critical theory and the theory of representation to expose how the dominant ideologies related to class, gender, and coupleship operate within film romance. It employs Stuart Hall's textual analysis method to interrogate the ideological functions of romance in five commercially successful films—Matir Ghar (1979), Beder Meye Josna (1989), Swapner Thikana (1995), Monpura (2009), and Swapnajaal (2018). Analyzing the films' plots, dialogues, music, cinematography, characterization, misc-en-scene, editing, etc., the findings reveal that each film contributes to the construction of romance as a reproductive, class-contained, monogamous, and endogamous relationship mandatorily sanctioned by family, community, and religion. In this regard, the study shows that the representation of romance in Bangladeshi commercial cinema actively participates in preserving the status quo. This thesis aims for an emancipatory effect by unraveling the ideological role of romance within one of the most popular forms of culture. With a global theoretical perspective adopted in the context of South Asia, this research makes a substantial contribution to critical cultural studies.

Keywords: Romance, ideology, critical cultural studies, representation, Bangladeshi melodrama, commercial cinema

যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র আমাদের দেশে চলচ্চিত্র অঙ্গনে এক আলোচনার বিষয়। যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র মানেই হলো একাধিক লোকের সহযোগিতায় চলচ্চিত্র নির্মাণ করা। আন্তর্জাতিকভাবেও যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র বেশ জনপ্রিয় বিষয়। যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র নির্মাণে থাকে অনেক সুবিধা এবং কাজ করার ক্ষেত্রটাও থাকে বড়। কিন্তু আমাদের দেশে যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র নিয়ে রয়েছে নানা বিতর্ক। আবার আমাদের চলচ্চিত্র অঙ্গনে সুনাম অর্জনে যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র রেখেছে অনেক ভূমিকা। এসব বিষয়ের অনুসন্ধান এবং বিশ্লেষণ নিয়েই আমার এই গবেষণা। আমার এই গবেষণা আমি কোয়ালিটেটিভ পদ্ধতিতে সম্পন্ন করেছি। আমি আমার প্রয়োজনীয় সাইট নির্বাচন করে তাদের সাক্ষাৎকার গ্রহণ করেছি। পরে তাদের সাক্ষাৎকার ব্যাখ্যা, বিশ্লেষণ করে আমি আমার গবেষণার কাজ সম্পন্ন করেছি। আমি আমার গবেষণায় যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের লক্ষ্য ও উদ্দেশ্য, বাংলাদেশে যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের প্রয়োজনীয়তা, যৌথ প্রযোজনা কি যৌথ প্রবঞ্চনা? (যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের ব্যর্থতা), অতীতে যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের সফলতা, বর্তমানে যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের ব্যবসায় জাজ মাল্টিমিডিয়ার ভূমিকা, যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্রের বাণিজ্যের ভবিষ্যৎ সম্ভাবনা এসব বিষয় ব্যাখ্যা করেছি। যৌথ প্রযোজনার চলচ্চিত্র নিয়ে এসব বিষয়ের উপর সাক্ষাৎকারদাতাদের মতামত গ্রহণ করে, সেসব মতামতের বিস্তারিত আলোচনা করে আমি আমার গবেষণার কাজ সম্পন্ন করেছি।

The aim of this research paper is to analyze how women are represented in Bangladeshi folk cinema. Therefore this research sets its object to see whether women are positively portrayed or not in these cinemas. The research is significant to know what identity they carry in the cinemas which become a myth for woman hood. The theoretical framework of this research is the feminist film theory. Semiotics analysis of cinema is used as a research method to examine the roles and images of women in the cinemas. Five cinemas are chosen from the early five decades on the basis of box office hit. This research shows that the patriarchal ideology controls the characterization of women on-screen. Therefore the roles and images of women in the cinemas are constructed according to the male desire. Their roles are constructed in a way that indicate their dependency on men in the society.

সাহিত্যের চলচ্চিত্রায়ন বলতে বোঝায় মূলত সাহিত্য থেকে অনুপ্রাণিত বা সাহিত্যকে আশ্রয় করে নির্মিত চলচ্চিত্র। ধারনাটি পুরনো হলেও বাংলাদেশে এ নিয়ে সীমিত পরিসরে কাজ হয়েছে। সাহিত্য নির্ভর চলচ্চিত্রে নারীর অবস্থান বা বাংলাদেশের সাহিত্য নির্ভর চলচ্চিত্রগুলো নিয়ে সামগ্রিকভাবে গবেষণা করা হলেও চলচ্চিত্র বিশ্লেষণের মধ্য দিয়ে এর রূপান্তর প্রক্রিয়া বা দুই শিল্প মাধ্যমের পার্থক্যের জন্য কি করে একটি চলচ্চিত্র স্বকীয় হয়ে ওঠে সেটি নিয়ে সঠিক গবেষণার অবকাশ রয়েছে। তাই সাহিত্যের চলচ্চিত্রায়নের এই দিকটি নিয়ে কাজ করার লক্ষ্যেই গবেষণাটি পরিকল্পনা করা হয়েছে। গবেষণাটির মূল উদ্দেশ্য তাই সাহিত্য থেকে কিরূপ পরিবর্তনের মাধ্যমে একটি চলচ্চিত্র তৈরি হয় তা নির্ণয় করা এবং এ পরিবর্তনের পেছনে কারণ নিরূপণ। এই গবেষণার তাত্বিক ভিত্তি হিসেবে ডাডলি অ্যান্ড্রুর ‘ফিল্ম অ্যাডাপ্টেশন থিওরি’ ব্যবহৃত হয়েছে। তার মোড অব অ্যাডাপ্টেশন এর আলোকে বাংলাদেশের চলচ্চিত্র ইতিহাসে সরকারি অনুদানপ্রাপ্ত প্রথম চলচ্চিত্র সূর্য দীঘল বাড়ী-র টেক্সটুয়াল অ্যানালাইসিস করা হয়েছে। সেই সাথে চলচ্চিত্রটির পরিচালক মসিহউদ্দিন শাকের এর নিবিড় সাক্ষাৎকার গ্রহণের মাধ্যমে চলচ্চিত্রটি বিশ্লেষণ করা হয়েছে। আর এর মাধ্যমে জানা যায় দৃশ্যমাধ্যম চলচ্চিত্র ভাষাগত মাধ্যম সাহিত্য থেকে গ্রহণ, বর্জন, পরিবর্তন বা বিনির্মাণের মাধ্যমে চলচ্চিত্রের নিজস্ব ভাষারীতি মেনে চলে সাহিত্যের প্রতি বিশ্বস্ততা রেখে স্বকীয় শিল্পমাধ্যম হিসেবে স্বীকৃতি পায়।

This study explores the little understood phenomena of new media based film distribution system in Bangladesh, finds the consequences of new media in film distribution and makes recommendation for developing an effective film distribution system. This research employs a qualitative approach where in-depth interviews of the people involved in traditional and online film distribution systems are taken to collect data. The study finds that new media based film distribution is an emerging sector in Bangladesh and it will strengthen the distribution system by reducing the distribution cost and increasing the revenue.

Keywords: new media, internet, online, film distribution, video on demand

Stereotyping based on gender is a very common phenomenon around the world since early days of civilization. Seeing women only in terms of their body also emerged in visual media as the division was already established as form of culture. Bangladesh is not an exception in viewing women in similar ways in the media. This study aimed to find out what kind of role women are portraying in advertisements of Bangladesh and if these role portrayals are changing with the context of time and the reasons behind the changes. This research engaged in-depth interviews and advertisements content analysis for data collection. Collected data were analyzed with thematic analysis and Barthian Semiological approach.

The study shows that there is change in women role portrayals with the context of time. The result of this research provides an understanding of women representation in Bangladeshi television advertisements.

Key words: Advertisements, Women Representation, Male Gaze, Role portrayals of women, Change of women role portrayals with the context of time and society.

In recent times, film marketing is becoming precisely phenomenon worldwide. To be successful in the theatre, film marketing techniques are actually supportive for a film. Before releasing a film in theaters, production houses promote their films in different ways and invest money for this purpose. These efforts of film marketing create a high level of awareness in audience to watch the film in theater. That is why film marketing is such a critical part of the filmmaking process.

Drawing on the Uses and Gratifications model of Active Audience Theory, this study explores the film marketing techniques in Bangladesh and comes to a conclusion that, YouTube trailer is the most effective film marketing technique. This study also uses in-depth interviews of audience for data collection and the sampling procedure is purposive sampling. Hopefully, this research on film marketing techniques will contribute to bring the audience back to the movie-theaters in Bangladesh.

Key words:

Marketing, Film Marketing, Film Marketing Techniques, Active Audience, YouTube Trailer.

This study explores the relationship between item songs and film narrative and the reasons behind the increasing use of item songs in Bangladeshi commercial cinemas drawing on Mosco’s concept of commodification. Based on the in-depth interviews and textual analysis of five commercial films, this study has discovered why item songs are included in Bangladeshi commercial cinemas. It shows that earning profit by selling the films commercially is the reason behind using item songs in commercial cinemas. Item songs are commodities which are used for attracting the spectators.

Keywords: item song, objectification, profit, commodity, commercial cinema

The main purpose of this research is to explore how the conflict between traditionalism and modernity is represented in Satyajit Ray's cinemas. Also, the socio-political aspects that had influenced his works, will also be discussed. This research will employ a textual analysis based on Vladimir J. Propp's morphology of the folklore of the cinemas. The research will present a deep understanding of Ray’s cinemas from a critical cultural perspective.

The lining shore of feature films around the world are adaptations of literary pieces. An array of writings, commentary exist which discuss the changes that happen when visual imagery is painted out of written words. Adaptations of famous literary pieces have always been a heavy banquet for film scholars. With a hope to contribute to that existing body of works, this study explores the techniques, processes and aesthetics of adapting a literary piece in film practice, tries to clarify the reasons why the form of a novel changes while being adapted in cinema, depicts out the changes made when the novel Noukadubi is adapted in the film Noukadubi; it also attempts providing a picture of the difference between the perspective of a filmmaker and the perspective of a litterateur, while giving suggestions about how the gist of the novel can be preserved in the cinema although the form gets changed in another medium.

This research work is verbose and exploratory for its connection with literature. Descriptive reasoning, narrative analysis, delineation of the facts construct this research and lead it to the strategy of qualitative research methodology.

Delving into the narrative changes when the novel Noukadubi is adapted in the film Noukadubi, this research work portrays the art of adaptation, the unique distinction of a filmmaker while adapting from the novel, the constructive elements of both film and literature.

This research has reached the conclusion that despite being an adaptation, the film Noukadubi saved the kernel of its literary base. It also conclude that the director of the film, Rituparno Ghosh brilliantly adapted the novel Noukadubi in his film maintaining the main storyline.

The main hindrance to this research work is the less opportunity of collecting information. The filmmaker of the movie Noukadubi is not physically alive among us. So it was impossible to take an interview of the director of the film. In addition, except some articles and newspaper sections, the resolution as well as the history of the movie Noukadubi was not found.

The main purpose of the thesis is to understand the economics of reality television and to locate the ideology which is promoted through it. This research employed a methodology combining textual analysis with a qualitative method of study. Input was sought from interviews and textual analysis of the shows. The research constructed a chronological history of reality television in Bangladesh. It also analyzed how reality television relies on advertisement revenues. The findings of this research suggest that the reality television of Bangladesh promotes the capitalist ideologies. The thesis provides some recommendations for the television stations and for the reality show makers so that they can improve their quality and overcome the problems of reality television in Bangladesh

The horrendous swelling perturb over the interface between available high-tech organs and its expeditious smash on under aged generation is an interminable contentious effluence among the erudite and associated authorities over the years. Apart from judging in any preordained panorama the overall insight of any of this particularity on any of the restricted groups always creates phenomenal controversy that directs to prominent substantialism. Social and socio-type life gets the diversified evolution all along from tech evasion: kids or the aged ones, disparate perpetration incessantly urges upon. Insertion of satellite television here in Bangladesh society capitulates ingrained delicacy, demeanor and ceremonial predilection. Children are growing amidst all these distortion, vicissitude and surrogation brought about by satellite television and its belongings so the brisk ramification over them is turning into more prominent convolution. The focus of this article is to assay the pursuance of Satellite Television on children in multitudinous countenance of Bangladesh.

The main purpose of this thesis is to find out how the narrative television advertisements influence the viewers to make them buy the products. The thesis analyzes narrative television commercials to see the hidden signs which make the desire of consumption. It also analyzes interview data of the respective directors to determine their intentions to make commercials. Then, this study analyzes the interviews of some audiences to understand how they are influenced by the advertisements. The findings of the research explore that there are different kinds of signs that can influence people for consumption. Most of the time, directors use signs very carefully. The viewers can sometimes express their choices, and sometimes, cannot. Thus, this study determines how the audiences become influenced by the sings of narrative television commercials and feel to consume the products.

This thesis examines the evolution of genre conventions in Bangladeshi cinema from 1956 to the present. It applies Film Genre Theory (Altman, Neale, Mittell, Schatz) and Postcolonial Theory (Bhabha, Said, Spivak) to address a significant gap in the systematic study of Bangladeshi popular film. Existing scholarship has examined Bangladeshi cinema through lenses of national identity, censorship, and exhibition culture, but genre has rarely been treated as an object of analysis. Using qualitative textual analysis, this study traces the formation, repetition and transformation of major generic cycles. Seven representative films are analysed, spanning from Mukh O Mukhosh (1956) to Toofan (2024). Each film is analysed across five categories: narrative structure, character typology, iconography and mise-en-scène, music and sound design, and ideological content. The prevailing genres include social melodrama, Liberation War film, folk romance, commercial action cinema, social realism, and urban psychological thriller. The central argument of this thesis is that Bangladeshi cinema developed its genre conventions not through imitation of Western or Bollywood models but through a process of postcolonial localisation, where imported generic structures were remodelled through Bengali folk traditions, national history, class-specific audience address, and the industrial conditions of the BFDC era and the digital present. The study contributes an empirically grounded account of genre evolution in a non-Western context. It also proposes the song sequence, star persona and postcolonial ideological address as key sites that distinguish Bangladeshi cinema genres from its Western counterparts.

Keywords: Bangladeshi cinema, film genre, genre theory, postcolonial theory, melodrama, genre hybridity, Liberation War film, genre evolution

This thesis examines how Tanvir Mokammel’s three partition films, Chitra Nodir Pare (1999), Swapnabhumi (2007), and Seemantorekha (2017), construct the Bengal partition of 1947 as an unresolved historical condition and as a vehicle for recovering the experiences of communities that the dominant nationalist historiography of Bangladesh has marginalized. Bangladeshi cinema organizes its cultural memory primarily around the 1971 Liberation War; the 1947 partition of Bengal remains comparatively unexamined on screen. Tanvir Mokammel is the only Bangladeshi filmmaker whose work engages this history in a sustained way across three films made over nearly two decades. The study uses textual analysis, informed by Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding, to provide close readings of content and form across the three films, supported by postcolonial theory, borderland studies, and memory studies. The findings show that the three films jointly construct 1947 as a continuing condition rather than a closed historical episode, and that they center the experiences of religious minorities, women, and dispossessed border communities whose histories have been largely absent from cinematic representations of Partition in Bangladesh. The study contributes a synthetic reading of Mokammel’s partition films as a coherent body of work, situates that body of work in relation to Ritwik Ghatak’s partition trilogy, and extends the existing scholarship on Bengal partition cinema and on Mokammel specifically.

Keywords: Bengal Partition; Tanvir Mokammel; Bangladeshi cinema; textual analysis; subaltern historiography; border consciousness; partition film; postcolonial memory

This research examines how the state uses internet shutdowns as a tool to block political resistance or protest in the selected Asian region. Internet shutdowns do not always function as the government plans because alternative options exist. Communication does not stop; it changes form. The study focuses on India, Nepal, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Iran, using Bangladesh as the main case study to analyze the youth-led July uprising of 2024. It also argues that an internet shutdown is not only a technical issue but, during a crisis, becomes a tool to control communication, visibility, coordination, and freedom of expression.

The research uses secondary data from the Access Now STOP dataset, Freedom House reports, V-Dem indicators, academic studies, civil-society reports, and credible news sources. The findings show that internet shutdowns are often connected with platform blocking, throttling, filtering, surveillance, legal pressure, and the risk of arrest. Governments often justify their actions by citing national security, misinformation control, and maintaining law and order.

The study also finds that internet shutdowns do not fully silence young people. Instead, they force them to adapt. Youth communication may move to private groups, offline networks, VPNs, delayed uploads, symbolic posts, or diaspora support. Bangladesh illustrates how restrictions can expand during a political crisis, while the selected Asian countries exhibit different forms of digital control. Overall, this research shows that internet shutdowns reshape the speed, safety, visibility, and direction of youth communication in Asia.

Keywords: Internet shutdowns, Digital repression, Youth communication, Political resistance, Asian Spring.

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