Shawdesh Desk:

Today is the 8th death anniversary of prominent author, playwright,  and filmmaker of the country Humayun Ahmed.

Different socio-cultural organisations have chalked out elaborate programmes across the country to mark the day.

Television channels will also air various programmes highlighting the life and works of the prominent writer.

Channel i has arranged a day-long programme to mark Humayun Ahmed’s death anniversary. The channel will air Humayun Ahmed’s popular film ‘Noi Number Bipod Shonket’ at 03:05pm. Actors Rahmat Ali, J Jayanta Chattopadhyay, Challenger, Tania Ahmed, Swadhin Khasru, Shabnam Parvin, Chaity, Maznun Mizan, Rupok, Faruk Ahmed and others will play roles in the film.

Channel i will also air a drama titled ‘Mayabati’ at 07:50pm today. Directed by Humayun Ahmed, the play stars Mahfuz Ahmed, Bipasha Hayat, Mozammel Hossain, Faruk Ahmed, M R Zunayed Mithu and others.

Humayun Ahmed was a writer, dramatist, screenwriter, and filmmaker of the country. His breakthrough was his debut novel Nondito Noroke published in 1972.

He wrote over 200 fiction and non-fiction books, all of which were bestsellers in Bangladesh. Ahmed’s writing style is characterised as magical realism.

His books were the top sellers at the Ekushey Book Fair during the 1990s and 2000s. He won the Bangla Academy Award and the Ekushey Padak award for his contribution to Bengali literature.

In the early 1990s, Ahmed emerged as a filmmaker. He went on to make a total of eight films – each based on his own novels.

He received six Bangladesh National Film Awards in different categories for the films Daruchini Dwip, Aguner Poroshmoni and Ghetuputra Komola.

Ahmed was born in Kutubpur, Netrokona to Foyzur Rahman Ahmed and Ayesha Foyez on 13 November 1948. He passed his Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) examination from Dhaka College in 1969. Ahmed then attended the University of Dhaka and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and later with a Master of Science degree. Ahmed married Gultekin Khan in 1976. Together they had three daughters, Nova, Shila and Bipasha, and one son, Nuhash.

Shila Ahmed went on to become a television and film actress. In 2003, Ahmed divorced Gultekin. He then married actress Meher Afroz Shaon in 2005. He had two sons from the second marriage, Nishad and Ninit.

Ahmed had open heart surgery at Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. A few years later, during a routine checkup, doctors found a cancerous tumor in his colon.

On September 14, 2011, he was flown to Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in New York City for treatment. During his stay there, he wrote a novel, Deyal, based on the life of the first President of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

He died on July 19, 2012 at 11.20 pm (BST) at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.