Bengali adaptation of Sesame Street to air in Bangladesh

[Arnab]

Bengali adaptation of Sesame Street to air in Bangladesh

Thu Feb 17,10:33 AM ET


DHAKA (AFP) - A Bengali version of the longrunning American children's programme Sesame Street will be broadcast from April featuring Muppet characters drawn from Bangladeshi folklore.


Set in the fictional Sisimpur village, the adaptation will feature four main characters: Halum, the caring tiger, Shiku, a clever but naive jackal and two children named Tuktuki and Ikri Mikri.


"Tigers and jackals are well known to all Bangladeshi children from traditional folk stories. We think they will love these characters," said Mostafa Monwar a puppeteer and artist who acted as the programme's creative adviser.


"The first few programmes have already been filmed and will be broadcast starting from April," he added.


Sesame Street, with its trademark life-size Muppet characters, was first broadcast in the US in 1969 and quickly became a household name.


Although some 30 countries worldwide have produced local versions of the pioneering American show, the Bangladeshi programme will be the first in south or southeast Asia.


The programmes are being been produced by Banglaeshi production company Nayantara with Sesame Workshop, a nonprofit educational organisation.


The project has received 6.2 million dollars' funding from USAID, the US government agency for international development. The first series will have 52 programmes and be broadcast on state-funded BTV.

[Shubho]

Hurray! Now I can bring up my as yet unborn children on a diet of Bangladeshi programming for kids. Excellent!

[cisco-guy]

The project has received 6.2 million dollars' funding from USAID - Yes, this is great. More money is good for the country
At last our kids can switch from Tales of Bollywood to Sisimpur!

[Arnab]

Well, I watched a few episodes of Mustafa Monwar's puppet show back in late 1990s. That show had the same characters they're going to have in this one. It was a pretty cool show.

[AsifTheManRahman]

i used to love watching sesame street as a kid. would be interesting to see how the bangla version turns out to be like.

[al]

This is really great. We need more kids program like sesame street.
Given the population size and mix of our country, this should have come way back. Now its there, i am so happy for the kids.
India has similar programs in local language and pakistan had adopted sesame street type programs also in thier lanuguage also. Many mid eastern countries have variety of these type of programs also.

[TigerFan]

I enjoyed sesame street too. I am just not happy to hear the news. Why do we have to copy in everything? Can't we make something totally by ourselves. I know it may be good for some kids, but why can't we have our stuff with only our ideas. Why always we have to borrow everything. Bangladesh has more than 140 million people. And you are saying none can come up with anything.

[TigerFan]

so much for daddy's money spending after 3 or 4 private tutor and coaching centres. Huh!

[Arnab]

Originally posted by TigerFan
I enjoyed sesame street too. I am just not happy to hear the news. Why do we have to copy in everything? Can't we make something totally by ourselves. I know it may be good for some kids, but why can't we have our stuff with only our ideas. Why always we have to borrow everything. Bangladesh has more than 140 million people. And you are saying none can come up with anything.

Hmm...ok let me give you an example. What language are you using to write on this forum at this moment?

[TigerFan]

come on, itz international language like bengali is my mother tongue and arabic is my islamic language.