Chhayanaut, the country’s esteemed cultural institution, has built a collection of thousands of songs for more than six decades now. The traditional cultural institution has been playing a special role in shaping society by using art and culture.
Now a new dimension is being added to the institution's work. To connect with more people, Chhayanaut is now focusing on utilising the power of social media.
As part of this plan, the content will be mainly created from audio of Chhayanaut's songs and recent videos. In the meantime, Chhayanaut started broadcasting all its programs live on Facebook a few months ago; and from now on, the live programs will also be broadcast simultaneously through all the planned new mediums.
Regular new content will be released every day at 9 am, and the initial event is called 'Jagoroni'. From the first day of December, the month of victory, Chhayanaut will release one content on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube channels simultaneously every morning.
Chhayanaut unveiled the detailed plans in a press conference at Ramesh Chandra Datta Memorial Auditorium in Dhanmondi’s Chhayanaut building on Saturday afternoon, which was joined by its Executive President Dr Sarwar Ali, Joint Secretary Partha Tanveer Naved, Joint Secretary Jayanta Roy and faculty and other staff members.
The inaugural content on Sunday is scheduled to be the national anthem, voiced by thousands of artists, recorded in Rayerbazar Martyrs Memorial recently.
Thousands of people participated in the recording of this performance with the support of Chhayanaut's like-minded organizations and institutions including Nalanda, Rabindra Sangeet Sammilan Parishad, Kanthasheelan and Bratchari. Chhayanaut will publish the content of patriotic songs through social media throughout December.
Later, in January and February, the content featuring various programs including recitals with songs will be released. After that, various content based on topics related to culture will be released, including Chhayanaut’s content on music lessons.
The press conference began with Chhanayanaut students performing ‘Bijoy Keton Urchhe Oi', followed by 'Himalaya to Sundarban', a song which was adopted from a poem penned by Sukanta Bhattacharya.
After the song, Dr Sarwar Ali said, “Chayanaut has upheld the Bengali ethnicity forever through culture, now a new dimension is being added to that. Apart from performing in auditoriums or open spaces, Chhayanaut performances will now be disseminated through social media, thereby reaching more people.”
“In the era of globalization, we will use the Internet to protect national culture and bring our content to more audiences. This will pave the way for building a society of harmony by stopping intolerance and division," Dr Sarwar Ali said, also revealing that this year's traditional Victory Day program of Chhayanaut will be held at Rabindra Sarobar in Dhanmondi instead of Dhaka University Sports Ground.
In a written statement, Laisa Ahmad Lisa said, “Chhayanaut was established in 1961 with the vision of encouraging Bengalis to develop independently in their culture and national characteristics. This institution is working on different branches of culture and culture-integrated general education, and all the activities of Chhayanaut are being conducted to build a humane society through the proper expansion and development of harmony, patience and practice.”
“In this six-decades-long journey, Chhayanaut has built a collection of thousands of songs. The content that will be published across its social platforms will mainly be created from the audio of all those songs and the recent videos,” Lisa informed the media at the press conference.