BD cinemas ban top actor over protests against Indian films

E-Paper | December 05, 2025

DHAKA: Bangladesh cinemas will boycott movies starring the nation’s top actor after he led protests against the first screening of a Hindi film in decades in the Muslim-majority nation, an official said on Thursday.

Bollywood blockbuster “Wanted” opened in cinemas on the weekend after Bangladesh’s censor board cleared its nationwide release, following a 50-year ban on Hindi-language films.

But the screenings sparked protests outside cinemas along with wildcat strikes by hundreds of Dhaka actors, directors and others, who said the release would cripple the local film industry, known as Dhallywood.

Bangladesh heartthrob Shakib Khan led the marches on cinemas, where protesters ripped up Hindi film posters and pleaded with fans queueing at ticket booths to boycott the film. “We’ll stop Hindi films at any cost,” Khan was quoted as saying by a local daily newspaper on Thursday.

Bangladesh cinema owners reacted sharply, saying they would show not any movies starring Khan and the other protesters and defending their decision to screen highly-popular flicks from neighbouring India on financial grounds.

Published in Dawn, January 30th, 2015

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jessica

Jan 30, 2015 12:57pm

Bengalis kicked Urdu out. Now it is the turn of Hindi. Wonder who watches bengali? Calcutta man have any answers?

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madhusudanm

Jan 30, 2015 01:42pm

Who cares if hindi films are banned in bangla desh. What a joke.

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Silent Majority

Jan 30, 2015 02:16pm

Great attempt to save their culture and identity Pakistan and a Afghanistan should also ban all Indian films to save their own cultures and identities

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jakoji

Jan 30, 2015 03:20pm

Shakib Khan - Hmm, I didn't know there were Pashtuns in Bangladesh as well...

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nirmal

Jan 30, 2015 05:06pm

so many bengali muslims even hindus have khan as surname.i thought sanjay khan a hindu in my childhood..

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Boston, USA

Jan 30, 2015 05:35pm

Get a life, Hollywood is a town in California, people lives work there, there is no such places in the world like Bolly , Lolly , Tolly, Dhally -wood. Bombay is now called Mumbai when they are calling it Mollywood?

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nishant

Jan 30, 2015 05:54pm

You cant even compare bangladeshi films to a c grade bollywood film like how lollywood was before 2009.After allowing bollywood films in pakistan did the pakistan film industry started to grow.Its a simple market rule -NO PROGRESS WITHOUT COMPETITION.

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raj

Jan 31, 2015 01:09am

@Silent Majority Which type of culture are adopted by Pakistani and Afghanistani people which can be influenced by indian or other movies? One thing is very clear quality will improve only basis of competition. Without competition,quality can't be improved . World will not remains closed when you closed your eye. Face the fact and ready for competition. India has never opposed release of Hollywood movies in India because they are ready to fight against Hollywood movie in case of qualtiy and Standord.

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jeet

Jan 31, 2015 05:00am

Bangladesh is not even 50 years old, how come they have 50 year old ban on Hindi movies ?

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Rashid Nazir

Jan 31, 2015 08:38am

@jeet Indian films were banned in 1965 in Pakistan which then consisted of East and West Pakistan. East Pakistan became Bangladesh in 1971 but the ban continued to till this day. So basically its first indian hindi film releasing after a gap of 50 years on the land known previously as east pakistan and now bangladesh.

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Kranti

Feb 01, 2015 04:34pm

We have 1 crore Bangladeshi Muslims living in INDIA illegally. If we also feels that these people are burden to our country, then what would be that effect on Bangladesh.

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Chanakya

Feb 03, 2015 11:00pm

@Kranti Kick them out.

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Mushfiqur

Feb 05, 2015 10:37am

@Kranti Calcutta is occupied by India. It is a part of Bangladesh and we will liberate it one day.

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conservative

Feb 05, 2015 10:48am

@Kranti As you say there are c. 1crore Bangladeshi living in India and there are millions of Bangladeshi living illegally in Pakistan mainly in Karachi then how people say that Bangladesh has made great progress after independence. Even in Middle East they are doing very low paid jobs as compared to Indians and Pakistanis.

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