"Lack of good films has prompted cinema-hall owners to stoop to whatever means to survive, as the present-day movies do not attract the audience," said Saiful Islam Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitors Association.

With the demand for pornography soaring high, a set of directors and producers is making steamy scenes that are later inserted into censored movies.

Sources blamed the overdose of X-rated scenes on some directors and producers within the Film Development Corporation (FDC), who have formed their own firms to make films for porn maniacs.

On a different front, traders are smuggling porn films into Bangladesh from other countries and distributing them in a country home to about 1,200 cinema halls, with only 300 of recognised standards.

The information ministry sent letters to divisional commissioners to form committees to monitor the movies and banned seven films packed with porn scenes.

Although most of the 35 cinema halls in Dhaka do not screen porn scenes, the environment of some halls are not suitable for all cinegoers.

"Our cinema industry needs thorough restructuring from production to screening to match the global standards and save it from falling apart," said Ujjal, general secretary of the Film Producers and Distributors Association.

Established on April 3, 1957 after a bill passed in the first session of the East Pakistan Assembly, proposed by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the FDC could not develop technical facilities and build an institution to create professionals to produce quality movies.

"The government will have to take initiatives to establish a film institution as it is earning about Tk 20 crore from the FDC a year, " Ujjal said.

The FDC has a monopoly in the film industry with a yearly earning of about Tk 100 crore but fell short of attracting educated people because of scandals.

"The industry like cinema needs educated people. It is also an employment opportunity," Ujjal said.