Oscar-winning Indian composer and musician AR Rahman is set to mesmerize the Dhaka crowd at the concert, titled “Cricket Celebrates Mujib 100”, at Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium today (March 29).
On Monday, AR Rahman arrived in Dhaka to attend the much-anticipated concert marking the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Security has been beefed up in and around the concert venue where Oscar-winning musician AR Rahman will perform along with local popular singer Momtaz Begum and famous band Miles.
Noted artistes of the country will also perform at the concert organised by Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) in association with Bashundhara Group.
Bashundhara Group is the main sponsor of the mega event while Walton and Orion Group are also engaged as sponsors in different capacities.
The BCB has completed all the preparations with the stage of the concert built on a large part of the stadium with 10,000 seating arrangement in front of the stage.
NEWS24 will telecast the programme live from the venue, which is scheduled to start at 06:00pm (BST).
“There will be state-level security as our honourable PM Sheikh Hasina is expected to grace the programme,” BCB Director Ismail Haider Mallick told reporters on Monday.
“The security is much higher than what we had during an international series and the national security agencies have been working round the clock to make sure everything moves smoothly,” he added.
The BCB was scheduled to host the concert in March 2020 with AR Rahman while they were also supposed to hold two T20Is between Asia XI and World XI but the plan had to be shelved due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, AR Rahman, who arrived in Dhaka along with more than one hundred of his associates by a chartered flight on Sunday, had a rehearsal at the stadium on Monday evening.
The Indian maestro is expected to sing 35 songs that also include the two songs that he composed to mark the occasion during the three-hour show.
Tickets, priced in the range of Tk 1,000 to 10,000, for the mega concert, were available at Shaheed Suhrawardi Indoor Stadium in Mirpur from Monday. Tickets are being sold in three categories.
Club House tickets are priced at Tk 1,000 (bronze) while the on ground tickets are priced at Tk 5,000 (gold) and TK 10,000 (platinum) respectively.
Mallick has also thanked the sponsors for coming forward for the event and informed that the BCB hardly had to spend any money for organising the gala event.
“The sponsors are bearing the maximum expenses and we’re very thankful to them,” he said.
Earlier, AR Rahman performed in a concert organised by the BCB before the 2014 T20 World Cup in Dhaka.
However, the official Facebook page of the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will live stream the concert.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) has taken special security measures on the occasion.
Traffic movement will be restricted on the streets around the stadium, and from Mirpur 10 to Sony Crossing, and T&T Crossing to Proshika Crossing from 3pm till the end of the event.
BDST: 1236 HRS, MAR 29, 2022
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