''Bishaash'' (; ''Belief'') is a Bangladeshi supernatural

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

produced by

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

Trust which was first broadcast on

Bangladesh Television Bangladesh Television (), commonly known by its acronym BTV (), is the state-owned television network of Bangladesh. The network was originally established as the East Pakistan branch of Pakistan Television Corporation, Pakistan Television in 1 ...

from 16 October 2010 to 18 March 2011. The series stars

Shama Rahman Shama Sarwat Rahman () is a British singer-songwriter, sitarist, storyteller, performance artist, filmmaker and actor. Early life Rahman was born in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates to Bangladeshi parents, a medical doctor and classical singer. Sh ...

, Sayed Babu, Arabi Rahman and Rahmat Ali. It is about a British-Bangladeshi woman named Zara who relocates to Bangladesh after inheriting a stake in a mysterious supernatural detective agency in Dhaka.

Plot summary

Zara Rahman (

), a young, head-strong and inquisitive woman discovers that she has inherited co-ownership of an antique shop in Dhaka after the death of her grandfather. When she moves to Bangladesh she learns that the shop also houses a supernatural detective agency. She meets young supernatural investigator Abir Zaman (Sayed Babu), his uncle Ferdous Zaman (Rahmat Ali) and his cousin sister Laboni (Arabi Rahman) and is thrown into his world of supernatural mystery, magic and adventure. The story progresses with various twists and events relating to the Zaman Family and ends with a huge unexpected twist and the darkest secret of the Zaman Family.

Overview

''Bishaash'' is south Asia's first supernatural detective series. and the first serial drama shot between Bangladesh and London, England. There are 24 paired episodes, each lasting 25 minutes. The series features dialogue in Bengali and English. Initially, the dialogue in the series is in Bangla with English subtitles. However, episode by episode, more and more English dialogue is introduced. The series was part of Mott MacDonald's £50 million nine-year programme since 2007 aimed at teaching many of the poorest people in Bangladesh what project director John Shotton describes as "vocational English". One of their project partners is broadcaster BBC World Service. The series was made by the

Trust. The programme was an initiative of English in Action, funded by the

Department for International Development The Department for International Development (DFID) was a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the government of the United Kingdom, from 1997 to 2020. It was responsible for administering foreign aid ...

. by 2017. The storylines have a supernatural twist which includes themes of family tradition, love, evil, and danger.

Production

Writers, directors and producers were recruited from the UK. Production staff includes staff from the UK as well as Bangladesh. Location manager Charlie Thompson recruited a local team from the domestic industry with basic industry experience or basic skill sets in the right areas and trained them to meet the required standards, broaden their skill bases and enable them to use them in the international arena. Half a dozen locals went through a formal training programme organised by Thompson that included seminars and on-the-job learning. ''Bishaash'' is set in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

, Bangladesh and

Brick Lane Brick Lane () is a street in the East End of London, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest, mo ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. It was filmed in a variety of locations in and around Dhaka and a village was built in the forest region of

Gazipur Gazipur () is a city in central Bangladesh. Located in Gazipur District in Dhaka Division, it is a major industrial city north of Dhaka. It is a hub for the textile industry in Bangladesh, with 75% of all garment industries situated there. ...

. It was shot on

XDCAM XDCAM is a series of products for digital recording using random access solid-state memory media, introduced by Sony in 2003. Four different product lines the XDCAM SD, XDCAM HD, XDCAM EX and XDCAM HD422 differ in types of en ...

and was edited in Bangladesh using

Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro (often abbreviated FCP or FCPX) is a professional non-linear video-editing application initially developed by Macromedia, and, since 1998, by Apple as part of its pro apps collection. Final Cut Pro allows users to import, edit, a ...

Cast and characters

Main

* Rahmat Ali as Ferdous Zaman: Antique shop co-owner, and Abir and Laboni's uncle. *

as Zara Rahman: Head-strong, inquisitive woman who relocates to Bangladesh when she inherits a stake in a detective agency. * Babu Md. Shaidul Islam Molla (Sayed Babu) as Abir Zaman: Supernatural investigator and Zara's love interest. * Arabi Rahman as Laboni Zaman: Technology and research expert, and Abir's cousin.

Recurring

Ahmed Rubel Ahmed Reza Rubel (5 October 1968–7 February 2024) was a Bangladeshi theatre, film and Actor, television actor. He started his career in Selim Al Deen's theatre group ''Dhaka Theatre''. Later he concentrated on mainstream commercial cinema, ...

as Abdul Ali, who is after the Keystone Journal and intent on getting revenge on the Zamans. *

Humayun Faridi Humayun Kamrul Islam, better known as Humayun Faridi (; 29 May 1952 – 13 February 2012) was a Bangladeshi actor. He worked in television dramas, movies and theatre plays. He won the Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Actor for his lead ...

as Kabir Zaman: Antique shop co-owner, Abir's father, Ferdous' elder brother. *

Shatabdi Wadud Shatabdi Wadud is a Bangladeshi film and television actor. He won Bangladesh National Film Award in Best Actor in a Negative Role for his role in the film Guerrilla (2011). Career In 1985 Wadud joined a drama club ''Artonad''. He joined theatre ...

as Pishach/ Sherzad / Alien / Announcer / Drug Dealer * Mirana Zaman as Dadi (Grandmother): The matriarch of the Zaman family.

Guest

Jayanta Chattopadhyay Jayanto Chattopadhyay (born 28 July 1946) is a Bangladeshi actor and reciter. He studied English literature from Calcutta University. He portrayed the famous character Misir Ali in a television drama named ''Trishna''. Works Films * '' Adam ...

as Dhormoraj: the chief of a tribe. *

Fazlur Rahman Babu Fazlur Rahman Babu (born 22 August 1960) is a Bangladeshi actor and singer. He won the Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor a record five times for his roles in ''Shonkhonaad'' (2004), '' Meyeti Ekhon Kothay Jabe'' (2017), ' ...

as Kimbu *

Raisul Islam Asad Asaduzzaman Mohammad Raisul Islam (known as Raisul Islam Asad; born 15 July 1953) is a Bangladeshi freedom fighter and an actor in radio, theatre, television and film. He won Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Actor four times for his roles ...

as Nuruddin *

Shimul Yousuf Shimul Yousuf (born 24 March 1957) is a Bangladeshi actress, director, and singer. In 2023, she was awarded the Ekushey Padak, the second highest award for civilians in Bangladesh. Early life Yousuf was born in Dhaka on 24 March 1957 and is the ...

as Rokeya * A.T.M. Shamsuzzaman as Rustom * Utsha Zaman as Baroon * Reetu Abdus Sattar as Srabonti * Shyamol Mawla as Adnan * Rumana Malik Munmun *

Bijori Barkatullah Bijori Barkatullah is a Bangladeshi television actress and dancer. Early life Barkatullah graduated from the Department of History at the University of Dhaka. Career Barkatullah acted her first drama, ''Shukher Chharpotro'', directed by her fat ...

as Meher * Shahed Ali as the mirror owner

Series overview

Episodes

Broadcast

''Bishaash'' was broadcast weekly on

and Bangladesh Television World from 16 October 2010. It was followed back-to-back with an episode of ''BBC Janala Mojay Mojay Shekha''. and reached audiences of 20.3 million. The series was provided without charge to

Zee TV ZEE TV also known as Z TV is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched on 1 October 1992 as the oldest privately owned television channel in India. History ...

and was aired weekly from 6 March 2011 on Zee Network's

Zee Café ''Zee Café'' is an Indian pay television, pay television channel owned by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. The channel mainly syndicates popular American and British television shows to appeal to the English-speaking population of India. Histor ...

. The popularity of the series led to a rebroadcast.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishaash 2010 Bangladeshi television series debuts 2011 Bangladeshi television series endings 2010s Bangladeshi television series Bangladeshi drama television series Bangladeshi supernatural television shows Detective television series Mystery television series Serial drama television series British English-language television shows Bengali-language television programming in Bangladesh Television shows set in London Television shows set in Dhaka British Bangladeshi mass media Bangladesh Television original programming