A love affair between dreams and reality - an interview with Hasan Masud

A love affair between dreams and reality
Faizul Khan Tanim interviews Hasan Masood, the army captain-turned-journalist-turned-actor whose career path illustrates the impulsiveness this eclectic figure lives by
photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

‘Amar account e duisho koti Dollar transfer hoye ashbe kintu apne amake pattai dichchen na!’

Honestly, the amount left me staggered and I found myself daydreaming about what I could have done with that amount of cash at that moment when Hasan Masood, the man who delivered those lines, came over and gave me a warm welcome back to reality. I was on set, where Hasan was rehearsing his lines and shooting takes for a sequence where he roars at a bank official for neglecting him.

His brilliant acting belies his experience, which begins with a military career in 1982, stops as a journalist with the Daily New Nation from 1993, the Daily Star from 1995 and the BBC World Service from 2004, and his present role as a television actor. The impulsive nature that guided him through this path serves him well as an actor. He is also a spirited singer and works on the soundtracks of his films.

‘Let’s start, shall we?’ he said with a grin. ‘When you are growing up, you always want to be some personality that you visualize the most. Actually life is full of surprises and it is very beautiful. So, when I saw soldiers marching past during by boyhood, I wanted to join the army. When I saw the shooting of any movie, I used to dream of becoming an actor and, similarly, listening to a good song, I wanted to become a singer and then when I used to watch the BBC or CNN, I wanted to become a journalist. Let’s say I had a spontaneous love affair with my dreams and reality.’

‘The main thing is your approach has to be honest. You must be devoted and honest with your dreams otherwise you will never achieve them,’ he added.

His most memorable experiences as a journalist were working as a sports reporter for The Daily Star while covering the first installation of the ICC Knockout in 1998. ‘It was thrilling to see all the cricket stars like Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and more. And after I joined the BBC, my most memorable incident was covering Sheikh Hasina’s rally on August 21, 2004 and the grisly attack. I was only 50 feet away from Hasina, listening to her speech, and I thank the Almighty that I could escape. Being in the army helped me recognise the sound of grenades and I instantly lay down on the ground. Last, but not least, 1/11, and this event hurt me, this happened just because of the dishonesty of our politicians.’

Hasan said that he was always a dreamer. An adventurer at heart, he looked for challenges and set about achieving them. In 2003, while meeting his friend Mamunul Huq, he bumped in to film director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, who liked his personality and gave him a call with a proposition to act in the movie ‘Bachelor’. This is how Hasan’s acting career started. So far he has acted in two movies, ‘Bachelor’ and ‘Made In Bangladesh,’ in the serials ‘69’ and ‘Taxi Driver,’ and now in a drama serial ‘House Full,’ being aired on NTV. He acted in several telefilms like ‘Bhagfol’ and ‘Tin er tolowar.’ In the last four years, he has also acted in almost 20 single dramas.

In a sequence from ‘69’, he jumps on a whim from a bridge and into the river for a swim; a stunt he performed himself. ‘Well, while in the army, I did the basic and advanced commando trainings and perhaps that helped me execute the jump easily.’

As a student, Hasan attended the five-year course at Chhayanaut and studied Nazrul Geeti. As he has a flair for singing, he released his solo album called Hridoy Ghotito on February 14, 2007. The compilation is a mix of folk, rap and other genres where all the lyrics were written by Marjuk Russel and the tunes of the songs were done by his friend, the late Sanjeeb Chowdhury.

Right now he is a freelance journalist giving weekly political updates of Bangladesh to BBC World Service and BBC Asian Network and he is exploring the field of hosting television talk shows.

Recalling some of the memorable scenes in his acting career, Hasan reminisced about a sequence from ‘Bhagfol’ where his heroine was Moushumi and he had to slap her. ‘I really regret that. Initially I couldn’t hit her for a while, but when she told me, ‘Hasan bhai, I do not mind, give me a proper slap,’ I did. But then that event disheartened me so much that I was not in the mood for an hour and later the whole crew came and consoled me.’

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/07/nov07/xtra_inner6.html