Ferdaus Ahmed

Popular actor Ferdaus Ahmed got the best hero award for his performance in the romantic film Kushum Kushum Prem, directed by Mushfiqer Rahman Gulzar, in the National Film Award 2011 announced through a government gazette published on Monday. As an actor this is his third national award.
Earlier, Ferdaus won national award in 2009 and 1998.
‘In the film I played the role of a childless parent in the rural setting where childlessness is considered as a kind of “curse” or “crime”. The film also portrays different superstitions and religious bigotry to have a child. Viewers usually watch in romantic characters in the urban setting, but I acted comfortably   in the rural character which had so many complexities,’ a delighted Ferdaus Ahmed after winning the award told New Age.
Despite winning awards Ferdaus mourns for the films are not doing business in the country. But, at the same time, he claims that films acted by him are doing good business over there.  ‘The Kolkata industry does treat me as one of their own. The difference between Kolkata audience and Bangladeshi audience is that 80 percent people in Kolakata watch films in cinemas, which is indeed a part of their lifestyle. But, people here in Dhaka do not show interest in watching films because of many reasons,’ Ferdaus tells New Age.
He also welcomes the Information minister’s interest for the collaboration with Kolata based film industry known as Tollywood. ‘Such initiative will not only help the both of the industries but also the people of the both of the countries. It will bring up the mileage of our industry. Both the governments must have good negotiations for this to be prosperous,’ he hopes.
Ferdaus is perhaps the only contemporary Bangladeshi film actor to have become hugely popular in two movie industries of Dhaka and Kolkata. Before him only Rahman had achieved this distinction in Urdu and Bangla films.
Soon after releasing India-Bangladesh joint production Hathat Brishti, directed by Basu Chatterjee, simultaneously in Kolkata and Dhaka, Ferdaus became popular in both the countries. He received two major awards for Hatath Brishti in both countries—National Award for Films in Bangladesh (1998) and Anandalok Award in Kolkata.
He even performed the main role in a Hindi movie titled Mitti (2001), directed by Iqbal Durani. Sharbani Mukherji, who made her debut in the blockbuster movie Border, played the female lead. But the movie was a flop.
Ferdaus became so popular in Kolkata that at the initial stage of his career he did more movies there compared to Dhaka. So far, he has played the lead in over 30 movies in Kolkata, most of which have been hits. Now he has seven movies in hand for the Tollywood industry, for which he spent almost the first quarter of this year in Kolkata.