‘No Association’ with Satyajit Ray: Bangladesh on House in Meymen Singh that is being demolished

Bangladesh said on Thursday (July 17, 2025) that a house in Mymensingh district is being demolished due to “dilapidated, risky and unusable” structure, “no connection with the famous filmmaker and writer Satyajit Ray”.

India on Tuesday (July 15, 2025) Called Bangladesh to reconsider his decision Satyajit Ray offered to demolish the ancestral property and to preserve the iconic building because this bungalow symbolizes cultural “Renaissance”.

In a statement released on Thursday, Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry stated that “a detailed investigation in the archial records confirmed that the House had never had any connection with Satyajit Ray’s ancestors in question”.

India urged Bangladesh to convert the “Landmark” building into a museum, which symbolizes the shared culture of the two countries and promised to expand cooperation for it.

Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry said that the House was constructed by local zamindar Shashikant Acharya Chaudhary next to the bungalow for his employees. On the elimination of the zamindarry system, it came under the control of the government, which allocated it to the ‘Sheshu Academy’.

The statement said, “District officials have reviewed the land records related to the House and confirmed that, according to the previous record, the land belongs to the government and there is no connection with the Ray family,” the statement states.

It stated that local senior citizens and individuals also said that “the Ray family and the House are currently not a historic relationship given to the Sheshu Academy. The house is not listed as an archaeological monument, either”.

However, the road in front of the house, ‘Harikishore Ray Road’, is named after Satyajit Ray’s great -grandfather Harikishore Ray, the statement said that the Ray family had a house on Harikishore Ray Road, which he sold long ago and thus no longer exists.

“A multi-storey building was constructed by the new owner. Now the building being demolished was dilapidated, risky and unusable,” said this.

“Since 2014, the academy had transferred the property of rent elsewhere in the city of Mysin Singh, and the abandoned house became a den for illegal activities by local anti-social elements. Therefore, an initiative was taken to construct a semi-stable building on the site in the first half of 2024,” the ministry said.

It said that during the meeting of senior citizens, literary and cultural personalities, journalists and local community members on Wednesday, eminent writer Kagal Shahin said that the building is not of Hari Kishore Ray or Satyajit Ray.

“All the attendees were in unequal consent that the abandoned building of Bangladesh Sheshu Academy or his family has no historical or family relations. In this regard, Swaan Dhar, an archaeological researcher of Mainsingh, is not an ancestor home of Satijit Ray.