Filming in Dhaka: permission, crowds and 5 locations worth the trip

Written by Jony in Dhaka · Updated September 2026 · About 9 minutes

Dhaka is one of the most visually dense cities on earth. Two hundred year old courtyards with families living in them, a river port that loads a hundred thousand people a day, brass casters working by hand, rooftops stacked to the horizon, and rickshaw art that is a recognised art form in its own right. For a creator, the raw material is absurd.

It is also a city where forty people will be standing in your frame within ninety seconds, and where the single most useful skill is the ability to have a cheerful conversation in Bengali with the man who has decided you need permission he cannot actually grant.

Here is how filming here really works.

Where you need permission — and where you do not

For a person walking around with a camera or a phone gimbal, most public streets are fine. Nobody is going to stop you filming a market or a rickshaw.

Where it changes:

• Government buildings, military areas, bridges, ports and airports. Do not film these without arrangement. This is the category where problems are genuine rather than theoretical.
• Heritage sites and museums — Lalbagh Fort, Ahsan Manzil, the Liberation War Museum and similar. Casual stills are usually fine; tripods, gimbals, lighting or anything that looks professional often requires permission and a fee from the site authority or the Department of Archaeology.
• Factories, especially garment factories. Always arranged in advance, always through the company. Turning up with a camera at a garment factory gate will not go well.
• The National Parliament building. Exterior photography from the public areas is generally accepted; anything more structured needs clearance.
• Private property, shops and workshops. No formal permission needed, but ask the owner. It costs thirty seconds, it is almost always yes, and it converts a suspicious bystander into someone who will move things out of your shot.

For journalists and documentary crews filming for broadcast, the rules are different again and can involve accreditation. If you are working on commission rather than travelling with a camera, get that sorted before you fly.

The crowd problem, and how to solve it

This is the real obstacle, and it catches out almost every creator who arrives without local help.

Set up a camera anywhere public in Bangladesh and people gather. Not aggressively — curiously. They will stand directly in your frame, wave, ask what country you are from, ask for a selfie, and bring friends. A shot that would take two minutes anywhere else takes twenty, and by the time the crowd disperses the light has gone.

What works:

• Shoot early. Between 6 and 8am the city is at its most beautiful and its least crowded. Sadarghat at dawn is worth the alarm clock on its own.
• Move constantly. A crowd needs roughly ninety seconds to form. Handheld, walking shots are far easier than static setups.
• Small gear. A large rig with a tripod says “television crew” and draws a crowd instantly. A gimbal and a compact body attract a fraction of the attention.
• Give the crowd a job. Shoot the selfie they asked for first. Once people feel acknowledged they will often step back on their own.
• Have someone who speaks Bengali. One person explaining warmly what you are doing and asking people to stand to one side clears a frame in about fifteen seconds. Without that, you are gesturing at strangers and hoping.

That last point is most of what a fixer is actually for. Not permits — crowd management, plus negotiating on the spot with the shop owner, boat captain or building guard whose space you want to be in.

Drones

Treat drones in Bangladesh as restricted, not as a grey area. Bringing one in through customs can require prior approval, and flying one in Dhaka — a dense city with substantial airspace restriction and a considerable security presence — is not something to improvise. If aerials matter to your project, start the permission process well before you fly and be prepared for the answer to be no. Confirm the current position with the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh rather than with a forum post.

Five locations worth the trip

1. Sadarghat river port, at dawn

The largest river port in the country and probably the single best location in Bangladesh. Multi-storey passenger launches loading in the half-light, hundreds of tiny wooden ferries crossing the Buriganga, porters running gangplanks with impossible loads. Be there by 6am. Hire a small boat for an hour and shoot the ghats from the water — the angle almost nobody has.

2. Shankharia Bazar (Hindu Street), Old Dhaka

A lane barely three metres wide, lined with three-hundred-year-old buildings, conch-shell bangle makers, instrument workshops and drum makers. Extraordinary texture, terrible light — bring fast glass and accept high ISO. Best mid-morning when the workshops are open and the lane is not yet packed.

3. National Parliament House (Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban)

Louis Kahn’s masterpiece, and one of the great buildings of the twentieth century. Vast geometric concrete forms around a reflecting lake. Late afternoon light turns the whole thing gold. Exterior shooting from the public park side; anything more structured needs arrangement in advance.

4. The brass and pottery villages at Dhamrai

An hour or so out of Dhaka. Lost-wax brass casting done the way it has been done for centuries, in workshops that are dark, hot and wonderful to film in. Small crowds, generous subjects, and a craft story that almost no international creator has covered.

5. The ship-breaking coast near Chattogram

The most dramatic footage in the country and by far the hardest to get. The yards at Sitakunda are private industrial sites with real access restrictions and genuine hazards, and they are sensitive about coverage for reasons you can guess. Access needs arranging well ahead through the yard operators, and it is not always granted. Do not turn up hoping.

Gear, heat, dust and power

• Dust is the enemy. Dhaka’s air is heavy with construction dust for much of the year. Change lenses as little as possible and carry a blower and cloths.
• Heat and humidity. March to October is brutal. Batteries drain faster; take more than you think. Let gear acclimatise before taking it from air conditioning into the street or it will fog.
• Power. 220V, and sockets are usually round-pin Type C/D/G. Load shedding still happens; a decent power bank matters.
• Back up daily. Two copies, in two bags, carried by two people if you have them.
• Audio is the real problem. Dhaka is extraordinarily loud. A shotgun mic will not save a street interview; use a lav, and find a courtyard.
• Best season is November to February — cooler, drier, clearer air. Avoid June to September unless monsoon is the point.

Shooting people well

One thing worth saying plainly, because it affects both your work and the next creator who comes here.

Bangladesh gets photographed almost exclusively as poverty. The frames that get made are of slums, ship-breakers and floods, and people here are extremely aware of it. You will find that asking before you shoot, showing someone the back of the camera, and taking thirty seconds to explain what the footage is for changes the entire quality of the interaction — and the frame you get.

Pay people who work for you: the boatman, the fixer, the family whose workshop you spent three hours in. Not a large amount, but something, and agreed beforehand. And if you say you will send someone the photograph, send it.

The country’s visual story is wildly under-told. There is room here for work that is not about hardship — craft, architecture, river life, food, the sheer density of ordinary life — and almost nobody is making it.

Permission requirements, drone rules and site access change and are sometimes applied inconsistently. Verify anything critical for your production with the relevant authority before you travel — or ask me to check it for you.