The proposed ‘Deshasiya Chalchitra Sansthan’, or National Films Commission, will help run the administrative bodies more professionally and “reduce the draining of government resources”, the panel led by Central Information Commissioner and former I&B secretary Bimal Julka said in a report submitted to I&B minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday. ET has seen a copy of the report.
The panel was set up in 2019 for rationalisation and professionalisation of institutes related to film activities.
In its report, the panel said that many of the government bodies designated for films–including Films Division, National Film Development Corporation, Children’s Film Society, Department of Film Festivals, and even education institutions such as Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI)–have overlapping activities that have “led to unnecessary drain on expenditure and manpower”.
The committee’s report recommended that the commission should be led by an eminent film personality and have independent verticals, each headed by a film industry professional for “more creative autonomy and independent decision-making, and less bureaucratic delays”.
Officials said the report will be looked into, and assessed soon for implementation.
Julka told ET that the film industry needs to look at reinventing itself in the backdrop of Covid-19 and that post-production work related to digital animation will go a long way in producing quality content at times of social distancing.
“Administrative bodies need to have an overarching vision to reach out to both our own multilingual audiences and also foreign audience. For this, one needs to keep exploring newer and more effective forms of story-telling,” he said.
Apart from Julka, the panel includes Rahul Rawail, AK Bir, K Shyama Prasad and TS Nagabharana as members.
The verticals recommended by the panel are –film academia with FTII and SRFTII; film production to have NFDC and Films Division; Children’s Film production, film exhibition and promotion with the Directorate of Film Festivals, and a vertical solely for film preservation, with the NFAI and National Film Museum.
The committee had also deliberated on the excessive expenditure incurred on running of institutions such as NFDC, and whether the institution that aided the production of classics such as ‘Salaam Bombay’ and ‘Gandhi’, has become removed from its original objective of promoting talent.
The panel also observed the role of NFDC, which was earlier intended for film production but has now been largely reduced to creating content for government advertisements. In the last five years, NFDC alone has incurred an expenditure of Rs 1,313 lakh in running its film facilitation offices, Rs 2,854 lakh in organising Film Bazar as part of IFFI, and Rs 848 lakh in production of films.
However, during the deliberations, while a panel member was in favour of letting NFDC run the way it is, and insisted on improving coordination, two other members were of the view that the institution has become redundant and needs an overhaul.
The committee noted that there is duplication in the responsibilities of the administrative bodies, with more than one body organising film festivals and little coordination in even archiving historically important content that needs to be addressed urgently.
The report said, “Many of these film units are under equipped and have uninspired people working in them, which leads to academic lethargy. Bureaucratic delays and indecision stifle the creative and speed decision-making which is essential for the creative functioning of these. ”
The annual budgets of other film units are Rs 50 crore for Films Division, Rs 10 crore for CFSI, Rs 33 crore for NFAI, Rs 30 crore for DFF and Rs 18 crore for NFDC.
The panel had also visited the campuses of FTII in Pune and SRFTI in Kolkata. Both institutes have witnessed prolonged student protests in the last few years over administrative and appointment decisions. The report said “very little interaction and hand-holding with the students of film institutes leads to mistrust and disappointment and outrage”.
The panel has also looked into best practices in the West, particularly the case of the American film Institute, which was set up to collect and preserve cultural and film records but was expanded later to include film promotion and education.
The committee’s other recommendations include a more qualified jury for national film awards, more representation for films from south India at the International Film Festival of India, and looking into why film scholarships earlier given to students of film making, and particularly of FTII, have come down in the last 10 years.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment