Durga Puja, the biggest festival for the Bangladeshi Hindu community, ended yesterday with Bijoya Dashami. This year, many familiar faces from the film and television world marked the occasion in their own distinctive ways—some with family, some on stage, and some thousands of miles away from home.

Today is Bijoya Dashami, a day that marks the triumph of good over evil. It also symbolises personal growth, inspiring the believers of the religion to overcome their flaws, cultivate virtues, and uphold righteousness. To celebrate this major festival, several television channels have lined up Durga Puja programmes for viewers of all. Among them, Duronto TV, the country’s only children’s entertainment channel, has once again prepared special shows for the occasion.

This year’s festival is part of a broader effort by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs to celebrate major religious and cultural occasions.

On one of the evening highlights, the festival drama “Dashabhuja”, written and directed by Shaurya Dipto Surjo and featuring Nazia Haque Orsha, Sabbir Ahmed, Naresh Bhuiya and Mahmudul Islam Mithu, will be broadcast on Wednesday at 10:50pm. A dance special, “Dhaker Tale”, is scheduled for Thursday at 1:20pm, offering a programme rooted in the drum-driven rhythms of the puja season.

What remains fascinating is how the aesthetics of Durga Puja on screen often mirror the aesthetics of cinema itself. Both are public spectacles designed to overwhelm the senses, to invite immersion and disbelief. A pandal is not unlike a film set, meticulously crafted, temporary, and destined to dissolve after a few days.

Sanchita Rakhi is primarily known as a Rabindra Sangeet artist. However, she is also devoted to the works of the five great poets. For this, she has chosen this song as her Puja offering to music lovers.

The performances that follow will include Shyama Sangeet, devotional songs, patriotic numbers, and contemporary songs. Solo performers scheduled to appear include Anima Rai, Deblina Sur Dola, Rituraj and Sinthi Saha.

Jahangir Alam says unaware of list; police and 80,000 volunteers to be deployed for Durga Puja, he says