Faruk is a legendary artiste in the Bangladeshi film scene. The actor, who is well-known for the film ‘Miyabhai’, is currently an elected member of parliament for ruling party. Election of Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association is on October 25. He is keeping a close watch on this election. There is no end to this actor's thoughts on how to have fair election. The actor spoke to Bangladesh Post about the elections and other issues.
A Mizan
The blame game over the election of Bangladesh Film Artistes’ Association has made the situation very murky. What are your views on the subject?
I haven’t seen much blame game here. Misha and Zayed are fighting the election as a panel. On the other hand, Moushumi is fighting against them independently for the post of president. Naturally, fighting an election without a panel is a bit rough. Some people have been dishonest with Moushumi. Otherwise, the two panels would have been nice. Many had given their word to Moushumi about being in a panel with her but in the end they backed off. Since they were not with Moushumi means that they didn’t want anything good about it. Winning or losing in the election is not the main thing.
And people tell so many lies. Being a liar doesn’t do any good to anybody rather it can come around and bite back in future. We prefer to do less and say more. We rather do politics instead of making films. But there is no benefit in such politics. The first rule of politics is love. How can people do politics when there is no love there? Moushumi is main here. I don’t want to repeat her name so many times but it comes up over and over again because she is very close to me. But this doesn’t mean that others from the industry aren’t close to me. I look at everyone equally. I want a fair election. Some people will want to take the election elsewhere. I think it's an attempt to start a fight deliberately. Many have backed off after initially supporting Moushumi. I think Moushumi should consider who actually is her friend and who her enemies are. There is no other enemy worse than a traitor. I want to tell Moushumi to calmly get through the election. And those who are fighting as a panel should keep quiet about the blame game.
Moushumi was recently harassed at the office of Film Artistes’ Association. Various media houses have already talked about the issue. Have you taken any steps to resolve the matter on your side?
I didn't see it happen with my own eyes. Talking about something which I didn’t witness creates problems. Moushumi has talked to me about this. I have spoken to many after hearing the incident. It seems to me that Moushumi could have resolved the matter without taking outsiders inside the association. And the way Danny has behaved with Moushumi is totally unacceptable. I want to tell everyone to forget about all this and participate in a fair election. We need to get back to FDC and we are trying to get something done. Our efforts should not be in vain. Now the people of the FDC are in the government. We can talk about the miseries of FDC. I would tell everyone to stop these blame games. You are forgetting that you are members of art and culture. People in art culture are not that messy. I want a nice and fair election.
Legal notice has been issued to the Election Commissioner demanding that the election be postponed. Have you heard about this?
I still don't know anything about it. But I can say that such notice will not prevent the election from taking place. In my opinion, what they did against those two members was in accordance with the law. This is done in organizational rules. So the election will be on time.
The reason which has been given to drop members from the voter list, some members of the same category are still on the voter list. There are allegations. What can you say about this?
I do not know about this issue. Complaints remain only as complaints. Truth can be found out after further verification. What is true and what is false will be made clear then. It would not be right for me to comment on this without knowing it well.
The artistes are very riled up about the election of the artistes' association. Such excitement cannot be seen about developing the films in the country. Is there any special benefit to being a leader of the association?
To me that sounds very strange. People are not worried about where our film industry stands. But everyone is eager to be a leader of the association. They do not talk about the movies, the number of films they have made, they are planning to make. But they want to be a leader. That's not fair at all.
Neither do they worry about making films nor do they talk about films. So let them take care of the association.
From their point of view, the film is nothing. Artistes’ association is nothing rather it should be destroyed. The Producers’ Association has never been in effect until now. But now there is an elected Producers’ Association. That is why there is nothing to be so excited about the artist's association.
