Eminent Bangladeshi actress Azmeri Haque Badhon took to the streets of Bangladesh on August 1, along with other artistes, to support the students in the anti-discriminatory quota agitation, which began in response to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh reinstating a 30 percent quota for descendants of freedom fighters, reversing the government decision made in response to the 2018 Bangladesh quota reform movement.
Badhon is the first Bangladeshi actress to have walked the Cannes Film Festival red carpet with a film in the official selection, Abdullah Mohammad Saad-directed Rehana Maryam Noor, in 2021, the year Bangladesh turned 50 years old. In India, she has worked in Bengali director Srijit Mukherji’s web-series REKKA (2021) and in Bollywood director Vishal Bhardwaj’s spy thriller film Khufiya (2023), opposite Tabu. The dentist-turned-actress is also the first Bangladeshi mother to get the sole guardianship of her child. In this exclusive interview, Moneycontrol speaks to Badhon about her motivation for joining the students’ agitation, the devolution of Bangladesh’s political situation under previous prime minister Sheikh Hasina, safety of Bangladeshi Hindus and hopes from the interim government head Muhammad Yunus. Excerpts:
It’s rare to see actors taking to the streets to protest against the political class. At what point did you join the students’ protest?
This was a peaceful student protest. It was an anti-inequality, anti-discriminatory quota reform agitation. But the moment the government opened fire at the protesting students, it was deeply upsetting. We have been quite suffocated and suppressed with the misrule and torture. In my case though, I’ve benefitted from the government. I have got the National Film Award, I’ve got my child’s guardianship, and I’m somewhat of an established actor in Bangladesh. I have, however, also been vocal about the rights of women and girls.
There were many issues that we deliberately chose to overlook, reasoning that since this government is unlikely to fall, there’s little point in raising our voice. But the moment [student protestor] Abu Sayed was shot at and killed, helicopters fired at civilians, killing a six-year-old who was playing on the terrace. That shook me. The government had no accountability. Instead, they tried diverting the attention on the destruction of public goods. Violence is not acceptable. It must be investigated. What brought people to the streets was the devaluing of human lives, public media circulating disinformation, government’s Shanti Shrinkhala Bahini (peace force) killing civilians, senior leader Obaidul Qauder threatening that (Awami League’s) armed youth wing, Chhatra League and Jubo League would ‘tackle’ the students. I posted on social media before the internet was shut down. Once the ban was lifted, I posted again on July 25-26. I started receiving threats and being called anti-national, which is par for the course since our country has witnessed a Goom culture (enforced disappearance).
Silence aids injustice. So, on the call of director Akram [Khan], under the banner of Drishya Madhyam Shilpi Samaj, a group of us photographers, cinematographers, actors and visual artistes, we began our protest on the streets on August 1, despite heavy downpour and police suppression. The courage of these young students inspired me to stand with them.
India is worried that Bangladeshi Hindus are not safe, given the number of communal attacks over the years. What is the situation there and how safe are Bangladeshi Hindus?
This protest was a student-civilians agitation. It wasn’t just Muslim students who protested, students from all faiths, Adivasi students, everyone joined. When the despotic government collapsed, and our former prime minister [Sheikh Hasina] fled the country, the Shanti Shrinkhala Bahini went on strike. For three-four days, all Bangladeshis, not just Hindus, but also Christians, Buddhists, and us Muslims were unsafe, because there was no one to safeguard us. The news played up the attack [on Hindus] but it didn’t mention that the students and civilians guarded houses of the minorities, guarded temples and mosques, cleaned up the streets, controlled traffic. There will always be opportunists who would stoke the communal fire at such a transitional time. Bangladesh also has those who support despotic rule, those who don’t believe in religious equality. These people utilised the situation. No kind of violence can ever be supported. I’m remorseful for the attacks on the minorities. My closest friend here is a Hindu and I feel ashamed when she says she doesn’t feel safe, because I feel the safest at her home. There can’t be anything more deplorable than the fact that because my Bangladeshi friend isn’t from my faith, she can’t feel safe. This situation has now been reined in to some extent under the new interim government, and I can say that Bangladesh [Constitutionally] believes in secularism and communal love. There are a lot of differences in our country, but a majority of people believe in equality.
I like wearing bindi, shankha (bangles), and sindoor (vermillion) sometimes but, recently, the Indian media made a propaganda out of my video, tweeting that because I wear bindi and bangles, that I’m a Hindu who’s protesting because she’s been asked to convert or leave the country. The truth is that, in that video, I went to show solidarity with the students. That kind of disinformation needs to be investigated. We are neighbouring countries, we can’t survive without each other, there should be friendship among us but we need to exist as equals, nobody can overpower the other.
It was deeply upsetting to see legendary filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak’s ancestral house in Rajshahi demolished.
We mourn that even more, because that [Ghatak’s] house was in our country. That the home of such a legendary personality was attacked and fully razed is of great shame for us. You all must have been shaken but we are deeply ashamed. All these incidents need to be thoroughly investigated and wrongdoers be punished.
There was also this fearmongering that with the Army stepping in after Sheikh Hasina fled, that Bangladesh could become like Pakistan.
It is never possible that Bangladesh can turn into Pakistan. Bangladesh is a free nation, whose democracy was jeopardised by a despotic ruler. An interim government has been brought about to restore its democracy. It hasn’t gone under Army rule, and even if it did, no way can Bangladesh be ever compared with Pakistan. I repeat, Bangladeshi people believe in equality. People around me, I see very little hatred among them. Hatred is what the previous [Sheikh Hasina’s] government had spread. Our political parties and politicians harbour old-school politics of spreading hate; wherein if you didn’t support them, you were considered an enemy. A culture of fear was created, wherein minorities were threatened but appeased to during elections. This is harmful politics, it’s not limited to just one party, Awami League, but extends to every political party that has ruled Bangladesh.
Two Begums have ruled Bangladesh until now: Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina. Whose tenure has been more anti-democratic?
What the previous government [Sheikh Hasina’s] has done, in its last term, was definitely more despotic. In the beginning, she might have been different, but since her government has been in power for so long (15 years), with time, power made her lose the sight of what is right. Until the morning of August 5 [the day Hasina fled], she ordered the Army to shoot at the lakhs of people on Dhaka’s streets. Our [pro-government] media didn’t show these footages. She was a leader, why did she flee, she should have faced the situation, faced the law, she didn’t even tell her own party workers before escaping. After that, her son [the US-based Sajeeb Wazed], who neither lives here nor understands the country’s pulse, has been giving provocative speeches.
On August 5, the visuals of violence in Bangladesh also included the vandalising of the statue of the Father of the Nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who liberated Bangladesh from Pakistan and died for his country. From a position of respect to hatred for him, what led to that drastic shift?
First of all, I severely condemn the way he [Sheikh Mujibur Rahman] has been disrespected. He doesn’t deserve this. He is for us the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu, at whose call in 1971 our country was freed, we must always remember his legacy. Today, Bangabandhu has been reduced to a symbol of Awami League, but not everyone thinks that way, I don’t feel that way. But the reason for people’s detachment from Bangabandhu is the doing of the Awami League party and his two daughters [Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana Siddiq]. The bloodshed and the brutal way he and his family was killed [August 15, 1975]…that can’t be invalidated. I will show my respects to him. People have been subjected to an excessive, enforced devotion towards him. That frustration was coming out. But what happened [toppling of his statue] is extremely deplorable.
In 1971, after liberation, Bangladesh was a ‘basket case’, financially crippled. From there, its GDP surpassed India’s and Pakistan’s in 2021. So, economically growth has happened under Sheikh Hasina as has been the rise in women’s literacy and empowerment.
Yes, those have happened. A lot of work has happened with regard to women’s education and upskilling. I hope we build a women-friendly social system, but we are far from there. No government actually wants to address that. We must accept that. As a commoner, I don’t know how exactly is growth and GDP decided. But, in our country, a lot of money has come into the hands of a few, those who have been pro-government and have been party to the crime have received a lot of money, there have been many instances of money laundering. In real terms, the inflation is so high, that the average man, the service class, the daily wagers can’t even manage a square meal. I don’t know how, irrespective of this inequality, can a high GDP be projected? The experts can reflect on this. I belong to the middle class, even for me the situation gets difficult sometimes, but my helpers: my driver, gateman, and day-labourers, they even find it difficult to buy a piece of fish in a week/fortnight’s time. Whichever dispensation comes, the interim government or in the future, they must focus on how to eradicate this kind of economic disparity. A lot of development has happened over the years, Metro Rail, Padma Setu (multipurpose bridge), women’s upliftment, but since, parallelly, lawlessness and violence was so rampant that we can’t celebrate the achievements.
How do you see Muhammad Yunus, as the head of the interim government, his vision, and his cabinet which has four women?
Students wanted Muhammad Yunus as the head, in fact, a majority of Bangladeshis wished for someone who can be trusted. In this moment, there is no other option but him, and that’s why this responsibility was given to him and he accepted. And among those in his cabinet, there are four women (Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Chief Executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, BELA; Farida Akhtar, women’s rights activist; Nurjahan Begum, Grameen Telecom trustee; Sharmeen Murshid, freedom fighter). I don’t know them personally but I know them as powerhouses of Bangladesh. They have always been vocal and lifelong champions of women’s rights, environment, human rights and more. Their contributions towards the country have been immense. I have full faith in them that they will work towards creating a women-friendly society, which will address environmental changes as well. Right now, I can only trust in Muhammad Yunus and believe that he would be able to give a healthy election very soon. But before that, our society needs a cultural reformation, the nation needs to be rid of its state of decay.
In the student protest, the visuals we saw in the news mostly showed male students. Women’s representation was hardly seen.
Many female students were equally present as well. We tried to bring forth the faces of women at the forefront of this agitation. Everybody came on to the streets, from rickshaw-pullers, vendors to the mothers who packed food for the protesting children and joined them. We went to agitate indiscriminately, we didn’t differentiate between male-female, race, caste or creed. But what happens is that our media, our society still has a mindset that is anti-women, that sidelines women and their contribution which is on a par with men. This won’t change overnight. In our films too, even today, those films are superhit which are hostile to women, in which women are shown as evil or they are burnt. This needs to be addressed and reformed as well. I want to say about the RG Kar hospital (Kolkata) brutal rape incident. It is not that it only happens in your country, it happens in my country too, where such cases have not got justice and instead fingers are pointed at the survivor on why she stepped out at night or what was she wearing, basically they are validating the crime. This is a deep-rooted problem in our subcontinent. I believe that the only way to begin addressing this is by repeatedly telling people, the men especially, that they don’t have any right to give us ‘freedom’. My nation has given me (every woman) the full right to freedom. So long as we are firm on this, can we consistently fight for our rights.
Just like you fought for your right and became the first Bangladeshi single mother to get the sole guardianship of your child.
There is a clause in our guardianship law [under Muslim law] that states that if the father is alive, the mother cannot become the guardian of the child. The child’s natural guardian is always the father, even if he is an unworthy father. This is rare, that in Bangladesh, a mother is given the full guardianship of her child. It’s a rare verdict that has come to the limelight. Perhaps, some other woman might have been granted this before me but that news did not reach the media. My verdict is rare and it has been used as a reference by the High Court to implement a rule, reforming the law, that any woman could also get the guardianship of their child if they can produce all the documents that I had to. Our inheritance law, too, needs amendment, to provide equal rights to both men and women to inherit property.
Before I let you go, I must ask a couple of film questions. What was your experience walking the Red Carpet at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival?
(Smiles) Even now when I recall those moments, it felt just like how one feels while delivering a child, whether it will feel good, bad or painful. First of all, the entire film was on my shoulders, it was premiering that very day, how would the audience react. I was under immense pressure because of the fact that this film, Rehana Maryam Noor is the first Bangladeshi film to be officially selected in Cannes Film Festival, will be etched in history, and how the audiences would react. That they gave me so much love and respect, I will never forget. This is one of my core memories. They applauded the film there. The film was released in Bangladesh, the audiences here, too, gave it a good reception. In Bangladesh, usually films that are hostile to women become blockbusters, so it was heartening and hope-instilling to see a film like Rehana run in theatres, watched by people from all walks of life. I got to travel to global festivals with the film, my director Abdullah Mohammad Saad is extremely introverted, so he only attended the Cannes premiere. Money could never buy this experience. Working in this film has helped me become a purer person.
You don’t have a theatre or acting background, you are quite a natural actor. How would Saad direct you on the sets?
I had no idea who Saad was earlier, I thought he would be an enthusiastic young filmmaker who’s starting out, but the moment I watched his first film, Live from Dhaka (2016, a black-and-white film about the anguish of a person with disability trapped in his city), and my mind was blown. I was nervous how would I be able to deliver to his standards. But I could relate with the character of Rehana and Saad gave me full freedom and a lot of space to emote a scene.
What was your experience of working in Srijit Mukherjee’s web-series REKKA (Robindronath Ekhane Kawkhono Khete Aashenni) in Kolkata?
My experience of working in Kolkata was not too great. But it’s a very popular story (written by Bangladeshi writer Mohammad Nazim Uddin) that we in Bengal, on both the sides, have read. Muskan (her character in the series) is different to different people. I’m glad that people could accept me as Muskan.
And what about working with Vishal Bhardwaj and Tabu in the spy thriller Khufiya (2023)?
I’ve got a lot of love for Octopus [her character]. Critics not just in Bangladesh but in India, too, have praised my work as Octopus. The sole reason for my success is my director and co-actor. I’m very lucky that in my first Indian film, I got to work with a great director like Vishal Bhardwaj. He is a gem of a person. They [Bombay film industry] are very professional.
My knees would shake, I would be nervous on how would I act alongside Tabu, she’s a veteran, a great actress. But she made me so comfortable that I ended up having a great time with her on and off the set, I could bond with her, and, what do I say, I actually fell in love with her.
Did you face any flak back home for playing a homosexual character?
Thankfully, no. Bangladesh hasn’t become such a state and I hope, and we need to ensure that, it never does.
Any more offers from Bombay?
I haven’t received any offers yet but I’m open to working in more films in Bombay.
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