A 15-day event titled ‘Smriti Shotta Bhobishhot’ will begin at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy to pay tribute to the 62 noted cultural personalities of the country.  In the event, the life and work of the prominent personalities will be discussed. There will also be cultural programmes. 

Artists Qayyum Chowdhury and SM Sultan, musicians Ostad Ayet Ali Khan and Ostad Ali Akbar Khan will be remembered at the National Theatre Hall Auditorium of the academy today, on the first day of the tribute programme.  

Dhaka University Professors Mamun Kaiser and Mainul Islam Saber, Jahangirnagar University  Professor Golam Rabbani, Professor Bulbon Osman, Press Institute Bangladesh Director General Zafar Wazed,  Reenat Fauzia, Irani Biswas, Ejaz Farah, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Liaquat Ali Lucky , among others will attend the first day’s programme as the guests.

Qayyum Chowdhury was a noted painter of the country. Along with Zainul Abedin, Quamrul Hassan and Safiuddin Ahmed, he is considered as a first generation artist of Bangladesh. He was awarded the Ekushey Padak in 1984 and the Independence Day Award in 2014.

Sheikh Mohammed Sultan, popularly known as S M Sultan, was a Bengali decolonial artist who worked in painting and drawing. His fame rests on his striking depictions of exaggeratedly muscular Bangladeshi peasants engaged in the activities of their everyday lives. 

For his achievement in fine arts he was awarded with the Ekushey Padak in 1982; the Bangladesh Charu Shilpi Sangsad Award in 1986; and the Independence Day Award in 1993.

Ostad Ayet Ali Khan was a Bengali classical musician. Born in Brahmanbaria in 1884, he invented two musical instruments, Manohara and Mandrand and developed the surbahar and the sarod. He invented a number of Ragas including Aol-Basanta, Omar-Sohag, Varis, and Hemantika.

 Ali Akbar Khan was an Indian Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod.  He was born in Brahmanbaria, in Bangladesh to musician Allauddin Khan. Soon after his birth, Khan’s family returned to Maihar (in present-day Madhya Pradesh, India). 

Artists Safiuddin Ahmed, Novera Ahmed, Mohammad Kibria, photographers Rashid Talukder, Naib Uddin, M A Beg, Aftab Ahmed, Noazesh Ahmed among others who will be remembered at the event which will be concluded on 12 June.