Second phase of Bengal Bikash begins

A total of 1296 participants were chosen out of 4000 cassettes sent over by them. This amounted to about 20,000 songs sent so far from far-flung areas of the country. The participants were encouraged to present songs without any instrumental backups.

The second phase of the two-day talent hunt at a regional level begins at the Theatre Institute at the KC De road in Chittagong from November 18-19. The competition will commence at 9am with Tagore songs, while the second session will start at 3.30 pm with songs of Atul Prasad, DL Rai and Rajani Kanta.

On the second day, the competition starts at 9am on Nazrul songs and on folk songs at 3.15pm. Competition on modern songs will also be held in this session.

Bengal Foundation strives to bring out the latent talents of the country not necessarily the stars, said the organisers. The foundation so far has released about 80 melodious cassettes of popular artistes. It also provides scholarships for higher training in music.

The talent hunt was advertised through the print media, billboards and posters, which successfully reached people in remote areas of the country, the organisers added.

Director of Bengal Foundation Luva Nahid Chowdhury, Director Fine Arts of Bengal Gallery, Subir Chowdhury, Khalid Hasan, Bulbul Islam and Mahbub Alam Pallab were present at the press briefing.