Abdur Razzak (1942–2017) was a celebrated Bangladeshi film actor and director, widely regarded as one of the leading figures of the Bengali-language cinema of the subcontinent. Affectionately known as Nayok Raj ("King of Actors"), he was instrumental in shaping the popular film industry of East Pakistan and, after 1971, of independent Bangladesh.
| Full name | Abdur Razzak |
|---|---|
| Popular epithet | Nayok Raj Razzak |
| Born | 1942, Tollygunge, Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India |
| Died | 2017, Dhaka, Bangladesh |
| Occupation | Actor, film director, producer |
| Industry | Bangladeshi cinema (Dhallywood) |
| Primary language of work | Bengali |
| Nationality | Bangladeshi |
Razzak was born in Tollygunge, then part of Calcutta in undivided Bengal. He developed an interest in theatre and films from a young age and began his career on the Calcutta stage before migrating to East Pakistan in the mid-1960s in search of opportunities in the emerging Dhaka film industry.
After moving to Dhaka, Razzak initially worked in supporting roles and as an assistant in film production. His breakthrough came with the film Behula (1966), directed by Zahir Raihan, in which he played the lead role opposite Suchanda. The film established him as a leading man of the East Pakistani film industry.
Through the late 1960s and the 1970s, Razzak became the dominant romantic hero of Bengali cinema in Dhaka, appearing in a long succession of commercially successful films. He worked frequently with leading directors of the period, including Zahir Raihan, Subhash Dutta, Kazi Zahir, Amjad Hossain, and Narayan Ghosh Mita. His on-screen pairings, particularly with actresses such as Kabori Sarwar, Shabana, and Bobita, became defining features of mainstream Bengali film romance of the era.
Beyond acting, Razzak directed and produced several films through his own production banner. As a producer he helped launch and support new talent in the industry, and as a director he handled both family melodramas and socially themed pictures.
Razzak is considered a foundational figure of post-independence Bangladeshi cinema. His career bridged the late East Pakistan era and the formative decades of Bangladesh's national film industry, and his commercial success helped consolidate Dhaka as a centre of Bengali-language film production distinct from Kolkata. The honorific Nayok Raj, conferred on him by industry peers and the press, has remained closely associated with him. He received the Bangladesh National Film Award multiple times across acting and other categories, and is frequently cited alongside contemporaries such as Bulbul Ahmed and Faruque in shaping the popular cinema of the country.
Razzak settled in Dhaka, where he raised his family. Two of his sons, Bappa Raj and Smrity Raj (Smrity), also entered the Bangladeshi film industry as actors.