Although a barbed wire fence marks the border line between Bangladesh and India's West Bengal it could not separate the bond of the people of the two Bengals, Information and Broadcasting Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud said on Thursday.
"We share the water of the same river, and smell the same soil. Overall, we are bonded with the same culture," the minister said while inaugurating the 5th Bangladesh Film Festival at Nandan-1 Theater in South Kolkata.
Hasan Mahmud said the great architect of independent Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, started the film industry in Bangladesh. Film is the kind of medium which can show the situation of hundreds of years ago and can also portray a picture of the future, he added.
With everyone's cooperation, the Bangladesh Film Festival in Kolkata has been successful in the past years, so this year will be the same, the information minister hoped.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu and film director Gautam Ghosh were present as the guest of honor on the occasion.
Bratya Basu said, our language and culture are the same. So, this film festival is a festival of two Bengals. Even in the fifth year, the festival movies will surely attract the people of West Bengal. "We also want the Kolkata movie festival held in Bangladesh," Bratya Basu said.