Where Is Samu Chowdhury Now? Fans Worry as Calls Grow to Stand Beside the Actor

Concern is spreading among fans and colleagues over once-popular actor Samu Chowdhury. A few days ago he was attacked in Jashore town; taken to hospital bleeding, he received three stitches to his head and returned home after initial treatment.

Since then, several videos of him have circulated on social media. They show that the actor travelled to the Lalon fair in Kushtia, and some of the footage shows disoriented behaviour and even scenes of substance use.

Fans who once adored him are pained and anxious to see him in this state. Some have phoned media offices asking about his current whereabouts and physical condition, but exactly where he is now remains unknown. Many have called on show-business figures, organisations and the government to help bring him back to a normal life.

Playwright Nasir Khan, several of whose plays featured Samu Chowdhury, wrote a long social-media post about his favourite actor. He recalled how graceful the young Samu Chowdhury looked, and how viewers of that era still feel nostalgic when they see him on screen — his presence brings back the past.

But Nasir Khan wrote that Samu Chowdhury's life has now become disordered. It is clear there is no one to guide him, advise him or steady him. As far as is known, he lives alone and is mentally well; but when a person's mind is under strain, self-loathing sets in and life loses its thread, he wrote.

"At such a time, people must stand beside people — is there not a single such person in Samu Chowdhury's life?" Nasir Khan asked. Suppose he has no family, or that personal troubles separated them. But were the people he moved with all these years not also a family to him? Where are his colleagues? Where is the actors' association? Where is the cultural affairs ministry? Is there truly no one to look after him, nothing that can be done?

Nasir Khan believes Samu Chowdhury needs treatment and love: treatment, support, counselling and a loving hand. If everyone tried together, could he not be kept at least somewhat steady? Holding to the ideal that "man is for man," one could at least try, he wrote — adding his fear that, given the state of the actor's personality and physical condition, whether anyone will give him work again is also in question. Will a once-bright star fall so wretchedly at the end?

A fan named Sarkar Shaheen posted two photographs of the actor in sorrow. In 1998, after the floods, his grandfather, retired army havildar Omar Ali, brought home a black-and-white television, he wrote — imagine how smart Samu Chowdhury was in those days. The second photograph is from now, circulating on social media. His reflection: fame, youth, beauty and money — none of it lasts forever.

Sarkar Shaheen also recalled an interview in which the actor said he had never married because of his mother, who was a mentally ill woman.

Calling for treatment to be arranged, Hasib Ahmed wrote that Samu Chowdhury is addicted and needs care; if his family does not arrange it, the state or the actors' association should. Another commenter, Mamtaz Uddin, lamented that many actors in this country and the neighbouring one have been seen in miserable hardship late in life — painful to watch, and something that should not be allowed to happen.

Praising Nasir Khan's post, Hasan Mahmud Khan wrote that he was the only one seen speaking up — no writer, hero or heroine, singer, poet, intellectual, association or director of standing had said a word. He also offered a plan of his own: if needed, he would speak with director Fazle Azim Jewel, Pavel (Azad Abul Kalam), Shyamol Zakaria and Shamsi Sayka, go door to door, and provide a place to stay himself if the actor has none. Yet so far, no news has emerged of any organisation or artist actually standing beside him.

As a student, Samu Chowdhury was involved with the Jashore Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, performing street theatre, stage plays and mass songs with Udichi for ten years. He later joined Dhaka Udichi, Dhaka Theatre and Nagarik Natya Sampradaya. His television career began in 1990 with Atikul Haque Chowdhury's "Samriddha Aseem," followed by dramas including "Janmabhumi," "Satpoure Kabya," "Ei Somoyer Golpo," "Jiner Badsha," "Sonali Roddur," "Ebong Ami," "Sabujer Holud Byadhi" and "Durer Akash."

He also acted in a number of films, including "Adorer Santan," "Nadir Naam Madhumati," "Dolon Chanpa," "Shoto Jonomer Prem," "Desh Dorodi," "Moron Niye Khela," "Premer Naam Bedona," "Sundari Bodhu," "Jumman Koshai," "Hridoy Theke Paowa" and "Golui." Fans now wait for someone to take the initiative and bring the man behind that bright career back to a normal life.