StanChart, Star to celebrate country's heritage this year

With a call to capture the essence of the Bangladeshi identity in their lyrics, photographs and films, The Daily Star-Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) "Celebrating Life 2015" contest opened yesterday welcoming submissions from all over the country.

"We want our participants to explore the diversity and richness of Bangladeshi heritage in their creative pursuits," said Abrar Anwar, chief executive officer of SCB, Bangladesh, announcing this year's theme, "The Heritage of Bangladesh", at a press conference at Hotel La Vinci in the capital's Karwan Bazar.

Besides holding it at national level, Celebrating Life this year will head out to 20 renowned universities (10 public and 10 private), informed Mahfuz Anam, editor and publisher of The Daily Star.

On every campus, the best submissions in each of the categories will be shortlisted in the first phase for a second inter-university phase, he said.

Eligibility and details for participation at both national and university levels are available at www.celebratinglifebd.com. Submissions for national level are open until July 31.

Starting off in 2008, Celebrating Life awarded 84 people for photography, 55 for lyrics, and seven for films and honoured 16 renowned persons with lifetime achievement awards for their contributions in the aforementioned categories, said Rafi Hossain, festival director, Celebrating Life.

Under the film category, the Best Short Fiction and Best Documentary will each win Tk 2 lakh as cash award while the Best Debut Short Fiction and Best Debut Documentary Tk 1 lakh each.

In photography, three cash prizes for the first, second and third positions will be given along with nine additional honorary awards. While SCB prints the top 12 photographs in its yearly calendar, The Daily Star publishes a coffee table book with the best photographs.

"The books serve two purposes. One, they provide recognition to the photographers and secondly showcase the beauty of Bangladesh," said Mahfuz Anam.

The best lyrics are also compiled into a CD after the music is composed by renowned songwriters and rendered by the country's eminent singers, he said.

Channel i this year is joined by Ekattor TV and Radio Foorti as media partners.

"In Ekattor, Celebrating Life has become Odommo Bangladesh, a programme which showcases past awardees of the contest, and is aired every Monday at 9:30pm," informed Mirza Shabnam Ferdousi, programme editor of the private channel.

Eminent lyricist Mohammad Rafiquzzaman, who heads the lyrics category's jury board, and Shahidul Alam Sacchu from Channel i also spoke.