Marking the 66th birth anniversary of Nattyacharya Selim Al Deen today, theatre troupe Dhaka Theatre is organizing a four-day festival featuring placing floral wrath, commemorative discussion, award giving ceremony and staging plays. The celebration will begin today by placing wreaths of flower on the playwright’s graveyard at Jahangirnagar University at 10am.  The next day, Dhaka Theatre will present a presentation titled ‘Putul Tomar Jonom Kirup’ based on the characters of Selim Al Deen- written plays, at the Experimental Theatre Hall of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA) at 7pm. On August 20, the drama and dramatics department of Jahangirnagar University, which was founded by the late iconic playwright, will stage one of his plays titled ‘Swarna-boal’ directed by Reza Asif at the Experimental Theatre Hall of BSA at 7pm. On August 21, the concluding day of the celebration,  a commemorative discussion will be held at the Seminar Hall of BSA at 4pm, where professor Abdus Selim will attend as discussant.
Later, the ‘Seilm Al Deen Padak’ will be conferred at the programme like the previous years.  This year professor Arun Sen will be honoured with the award. Besides, Mir Moksud Salehin-Bazlul Karim Padak 2015 and Fouzia Yasmin Shibli Padak will be conferred. Professor Sirajul Islam Chowdhury will hand over the award at 6:30pm. Later part of the day, Dhaka Theatre will stage Selim Al Deen’s play ‘Nimajjan’ directed by Nasiruddin Yusuf, at 7 pm at the National Theatre Hall of BSA.
Born on August 18, 1949 in Feni, Selim Al-Deen, known as ‘natyacharya’,   joined Jahangirnagar University in 1974 as a faculty in Bangla department and later on became the founder chairperson of the Department of Drama and Dramatics of the University.
‘Shorpo Bishoyok Golpo’ (Story about Snakes), his first play for the theatre, was staged in 1972. Dhaka Theatre was founded by him in 1973. Dhaka Theatre, the leading theatre group of the country plays a pivotal role towards progressive drama movement and has staged almost all of Selim Al –Deen’s plays. His  plays like Kittonkhola, Bashon, Atotai, Saifulmulk Badiuzzaman, Keramat Mangal, Haat Hodai, Chaka, Joiboti Koinnar Mon, Hargaj, Muntaserer Fantasy, Nimojjan and others enhanced the quality of the local theatre. He passed away on January 14, 2008.