Masud Rana (fictional character)

Masud Rana is a fictional character created in 1966 by the writer Qazi Anwar Hussain, who featured him in 470 books (322 novels and 6 short stories). Qazi Anwar Hussain created the adult spy-thriller series Masud Rana, at first modeled after James Bond, but expanded widely. So far 470 books have been published in this series which has gained a lot of popularity in Bangladesh. Written from the 1960s and continuing to present day, books are published almost every three months by Sheba Prokashoni, one of the most popular publishing houses of Bangladesh. Although Qazi Anwar Hussain started the series, he no longer writes it. A group of ghostwriters are employed to produce all the new Masud Rana novels.

The Masud Rana books describe the adventures of its eponymous hero Masud Rana, an international espionage agent of Bangladeshi origin, closely resembling James Bond in his expertise with weapons and love for women. Although the sole author of the series was Qazi Anwar Hussain, it is known that he liberally extracted segments of plots from popular Western spy thrillers from the contemporary period. Nonetheless, the series became a boon for young people in post-war Bangladesh, who had few entertainment alternatives in an era pre-dating cable TV, the Internet and smart phones. The books caused concern among some middle-class parents because of their occasional racy contents, and reading Masud Rana was an activity often frowned upon. The series eventually ran to well over four hundred individual titles.

Masud Rana has also been adapted for one Bengali film and one TV drama.

In July 2018, the Bangladeshi production house Jaaz Multimedia received permission from Hussain to make three movies based on the first three novels of the series. The production house hopes to release the films in the next five years.

Creation and inspiration
The character was created in 1966 by Bangladeshi novelist Qazi Anwar Hussain in an attempt to write an adult spy thriller for Bangladeshi readers. According to the preface of "Dhongsho-Pahar" (first book in the series), Hussain was inspired and encouraged by his close friend Mahbub Amin.

Hussain took the name for his character from the first name of Hussain's friend, lyricist Masud Karim, and Rana Pratap Singh of the Rajput clan who ruled Mewar, a state in north-western India from 1540 to 1597. Hussain admitted in a 1994 interview that he was heavily influenced by the Ian Fleming character James Bond.



Masud Rana in other media
A full-length feature film about Rana was made in 1974 titled Masud Rana. Masud Parvez, who is known by his stage name Sohel Rana directed and starred in it. The film is based on the story Bishmaron [Amnesia] (which in turn is based on Strictly for Cash.. by James Hadley Chase.) It is the 11th story in the series and was first published in 1967.

Three films based on first three novels from the series are planned. In July 2018, the Jaaz Multimedia production house announced that it was going to make the films based on Dhwangsha Pahar, Bharatnatyam and Swarna Mrigya. "We recently received permission to make films on the widely read Masud Rana series from Qazi Anwar Hussain," the company said. These three movies will be made and released over the course of next five years. The first film, which will be based on Dhongsho-Pahar, will go on shooting floors in January 2019.

The first package drama in the history of Bangladesh, Prachir Periye (Beyond the Wall) was telecast in 1994 and is based on Pishach Dweep (The Island of Evil) with screenplay by Atiqul Haque Chowdhury and stars Bipasha Hayat.

In 2023, Jaaz Multimedia released a Bengali movie, MR-9: Do or Die, directed by Asif Akbar based on the novel Dhangsa Pahar.

Profile and background
Masud Rana is a former major of the Bangladesh Army who is currently serving as a commander stationed for HUMINT (Human Intelligence) at the Bangladesh Counter Intelligence (BCI) headquarters in Dhaka. He works under the direct command of Major General (retired) Rahat Khan, the head of BCI.

In the Masud Rana series, Rana is not only a member of the BCI but also the founder and director of an international investigating firm called Rana Agency. The agency serves as a front cover for BCI in the form of a private investigation agency.

Additionally, Rana holds the position of chairman at Saul Shipping Corporation, a multinational shipping company. He took on this position after the death of Rebecca Saul

Early life
Masud Rana was born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to Justice Imtiaz Chowdhury and Jahanara Imtiaz Chowdhury. Unfortunately, at the age of 13, his parents were killed in a car accident near Chittagong, leaving him orphaned.

After his parents' death, Rana went to live with his aunt, Ismat Ara, in Fort William, Highland. Later, he briefly attended Eton College, a prestigious boarding school in England.

According to the early Pakistan-era novels of the Masud Rana series, Rana joined the Pakistan Army and graduated from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He began his army career in the infantry (regiment unknown) and eventually became a commando, later joining Military Intelligence. At a young age, Rana was promoted to the rank of major. He was later recruited by Rahat Khan to work for PCI, which later became BCI.

During the liberation war of Bangladesh, Major Rana fought in the front-line with guerrillas while hiding his real identity and rank. After independence, Rana and Sohel worked together to rebuild BCI from the ashes. Sohel worked in the light while Rana remained in the shadows.

Psychological evaluation
Masud Rana is a unique individual with a strong spirit and principles. He is known for his fearlessness and willingness to take on heavy risks. Rana tends to be a solitary individual who enjoys athletic pursuits such as running, skiing, hiking, swimming, diving, and most notably, climbing.

Rana is a goal-oriented individual who seeks structure in his life. He has acquired strong tastes and thrives under a sense of pattern and habit. Despite this, Rana finds subtle ways of rebelling against structure.

He has a remarkable willingness to take on dangerous missions, making him an excellent candidate for intelligence, espionage, counterintelligence, and covert operations assignments.

Rana has strong interpersonal skills and can act comfortably in many situations. However, he tends to seek companionship mainly for sexual recreation.

Rana's lone wolf personality tends to attract others, but he does not console himself by surrounding himself with others. He prefers to carefully organize the aspects of his personality that he reveals to others, and he excels at burying information he does not wish to reveal.

While the world is far from black and white to Rana, he does tend to see it in stark terms of chaos and order, tradition and change. Rana has chosen to identify with order and tradition.

Rana is an excellent candidate for sensational and high risk intelligence, espionage, counter intelligence and covert operation assignments.

Hobbies
He is a highly skilled athlete who excels in solitary sports such as climbing, diving, swimming, and running. Additionally, he has a passion for driving high-end vehicles at high speeds, although he does not participate in racing. Rana has been known to enjoy gambling at various casinos, but has never allowed it to result in financial ruin. He also indulges in drinking, but in moderation and not to excess.

Intelligence training
Major Rana underwent specialized training and orientation for BCI Covert Operations. He demonstrated outstanding physical endurance as well as aptitude in logical and psychological operations exercises.

Special forces training
Major Rana completed specialized orientations and BCI Covert Operations training, showcasing exceptional physical endurance, as well as logical and psychological operations exercises.

Graduating with mastery in Underwater and Aquatic Warfare training, Major Rana's expertise extends to jungle, desert, Arctic, mountain, and urban warfare. In addition, he earned certifications for operating various rotary and fixed-wing aircraft, including fighter jets, hovercraft, marine assault vessels, and armored vehicles. His training encompasses special reconnaissance, sniping, evasive driving, free-falling, hostage rescue and negotiation, human-intelligence gathering, and numerous other military skills.

Major Rana proved his capabilities as a trainer, adept at training other candidates, initiating athletic competitions, and fostering a creative environment. He excels in guerrilla warfare, counter-terrorism, hostage rescue, asymmetric warfare, and covert reconnaissance.

Major Rana has a natural aptitude for learning BCI methods and excels in languages, speaking fluently without accent in Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, English, Italian, French, and German. He also speaks, reads, and writes passable Greek, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Japanese. In some situations, Rana has been known to come across as arrogant and overly confident.

Rana tends to work best with general goals and the freedom to accomplish those goals in the manner he sees fit. Although he often appears as a loner, he exemplifies discipline and results-oriented action. Rana enjoys taking risks, calculating the odds of success, and playing those risks to the edge of failure. However, he may appear visibly bored and restless during more mundane aspects of training.

BCI HQ, Dhaka
Rana continued to work as a mission specialist in locations such as the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Zimbabwe, Italy, Australia, Chili, Myanmar, Thailand, Hong Kong, Norway, Israel, Sweden, Brazil, Egypt, India, Pakistan and many other countries of the world.

Intelligence service
Rana's service with the BCI has been marked by moments of exemplary but risky bravado. While performing his duties with great zeal, Major Rana has often taken it upon himself to expand upon his orders, and, on more than one occasion, to violate them outright.

Foreign agencies
Rana has been a special projects director of the fictional US agency National Underwater & Maritime Agency. He is also an advisor to the British Secret Intelligence Service.

Mercenary / foreign military
Rana has fought around the world as a mercenary, though not for money, for ideology and humanity, knowingly in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Congo, Bosnia, Katanga and Zimbabwe.

He has served on deputation/temporary attachment with the Egyptian Army, as a staff officer in Military Intelligence and a trainer in the Special Forces. He has served with various US Special Operations units such as Force Recon, Special Forces in many joint operations. He has served undercover in the Royal Navy on an assignment from MI6 to foil an anarchist plot, and in the mercenary Katanga Army to rescue a Rana Agency agent stranded inside rebel territory. He is also a team leader of an anti-terrorism unit of the United Nations.

Masud Rana books at a glance
Some Rana books are little more than direct translations from well known Western titles with only character names being changed i.e. "Shotru Bibhishon" from The Negotiator and "Ondho Shikari" from The Fourth Protocol. But most of the books have changes that resonate with Bangladeshi readers, hence their popularity.

Each Rana paperback opens with these lines: "An untameable daredevil spy of Bangladesh Counter Intelligence. On secret missions he travels the globe. His life is queer. His movements are mysterious and strange. His heart, a beautiful mix of gentle and tough. Single. He attracts, but refuses to get snared. Wherever he encounters injustice, oppression, and wrong, he fights back. Every step he takes is shadowed by danger, fear, and the risk of death. Come, let us acquaint ourselves with this daring, always hip, young man. In a flash, he will lift us out of the monotony of a mundane life to an awesome world of our dreams. You are invited. Thank you."

The series is made up of 470 books (322 novels and 6 short stories), with 125 stories in two volumes and 11 stories in three volumes, a book containing one short story, and a book containing a collection of 5 stories, making a total of 470 books published as follows: