Amid a row over its demolition, the Bangladesh government Thursday said that the building being brought down in Mymensingh district has no historical or family links to legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray.
“Detailed inquiry into archive/records in #Bangladesh reconfirm: the building being demolished in #Mymensingh district has no historical/familial link to iconic Bengali filmmaker #Satyajit Ray or his ancestors,” a statement by Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs read on X (formerly Twitter).
Detailed inquiry into archive/records in #Bangladesh reconfirm: the building being demolished in #Mymensingh district has no historical/familial link to iconic Bengali filmmaker #Satyajit Ray or his ancestors. pic.twitter.com/IT4uwtvBFm
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs (@BDMOFA) July 17, 2025
Earlier in the day, a report by Bangladesh’s daily newspaper The Daily Star stated that the demolition of the house was “stopped on instructions from the DC, Mymensingh District”.
The daily had reported on Tuesday that the ancestral home of eminent litterateur Upendra Kishore Ray Chowdhury, formerly used as the Mymensingh Shishu Academy, was being demolished to make way for a new “semi-concrete structure”. Chowdhury was the father of the celebrated poet, Sukumar Ray, and the grandfather of Satyajit Ray.
The Indian government had recently suggested that Bangladesh ‘reconsider the demolition’ of Satyajit Ray’s ancestral home and said it could help in the reconstruction of the property into a ‘museum of literature’.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also urged the Indian government to intervene in the issue and appealed to the Bangladeshi government and “to all right-thinking people of that country to preserve this edifice of rich tradition”.
