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Entertainment Education Programs
New Bangladesh Soap Opera: Shabuj Chhaya
As each 30-minute episode ends, an announcer says: “Now it’s time for the audience quiz.” He gives the correct answers for last week’s quiz and then asks three new questions about the current episode, telling the audience they have seven days to mail in the correct answers to be entered in a drawing. The first five correct answers drawn win Tk. 500 (U.S. $10), and the next 20 correct entries win calendars.
The 13-part TV series, which premiered on January 21, 2000 is a production of the Bangladesh Center for Communication Programs (BCCP). Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs provided technical assistance and story line development. At the initiative of the Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the new TV serial follows the extremely successful TV drama, Shabuj Shathi, which was broadcast in 1998. It also received funding and technical assistance from USAID and JHU/CCP. It featured Bokul, a dedicated and charming Bangladeshi health worker who helps to improve the health of people in her village. The central character of the new drama, Shabuj Chhaya, is a middle-aged, energetic and dedicated Doctor Jalal, who tries to persuade people to take responsibility for their health. In one scene Doctor Jalal asks the Imam to mention the vaccination of children after the sermon. The Imam responds: “You will have to explain to me exactly what I have to say. And I definitely will say it. It is my duty.” But when the Imam tells his congregation to vaccinate their children, Kuddus, a former village union parishad member, shouts that the mosque is a place for religious affairs. “You are talking about Green Umbrella clinics. Those health care centers sell birth control materials,” Kuddus shouts. Amid the general commotion that follows, the headmaster of the local school points out that the Prophet Muhammad used to hold discussions in the mosque to benefit the people. Everybody agrees and Kuddus has to keep quiet. Other characters include paramedic Nasima, who has vowed to help people with their problems; Farooque, a young man who tries to do at least one good deed each day; and a colorful beggar on a horse who dispenses advice along with the doctor’s recommendations to all he meets. The drama is written and directed by the popular playright Humayun Ahmed and stars well-known Bangladeshi actors and actresses. If results of the previous serial, Shabuj Shathi, are indicative, some 70% of TV viewers will watch the 13-episode drama—around 35 million people. |
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Friday
evening at 8 o’clock, following the Bangla news, millions
of Bangladeshis sit glued to their television sets watching
the soap opera Shabuj Chhaya. Interwoven with the drama
and emotion of village life are health messages about immunization
for children, vitamin A, diarrhea, family planning for newlyweds,
adolescent sexuality, and AIDS. 
Back
at the ad agency in charge of production management, the staff
gear up for another huge influx of mail. After three episodes,
22 large gunnysacks of letters, each containing some 9,000
letters, are lined up in the office. In this photo, staff
of the ad agency begin to sort through the sacks of mail. 
© 2005 The Johns Hopkins University. All rights reserved.