Policy
for U'khand Film Industry is need of the hour!

By
Jayprakash Panwar "JP"

It is an ironic situation that the Uttarakhand government is not taking the
regional film industry in a serious way. The latest agitation and hunger strike
by the artists and regional film community is an inevitable action against the
decision makers. So far, no such window exists in the state where the film
community can seek help and advice from the government. It is a dilemma for the
community where to go? Whom to ask? And, how to go ahead? The potential for the
regional film industry and associated employment is abundant. It is expected
that the annual turnover of the regional audio-video production is more than Rs
100 million in the state.

The film industry of Uttarakhand is unorganised and the time has come for it to
organise as that is the next step for inevitable growth of the sector.

In India,
today, 50% of the total revenue is based on the regional film industries, which
means the share of Bollywood is just confined to 50% and the rest is dependant
on regional films. The Uttarakhand government should not forget that there are
so many countries in the world whose population is far less then Uttarakhand
but they have an advanced film industry, film board and institutions.
Uttarakhand with its 8.5 million population provides a huge potential for
regional film and film software production, employment and development in the
the future, if the government were to develop an organised environment for the
development of local film talent. In the UK,
US and Canada,
Bollywood films are generating good revenue even with the relatively small NRI
population. The recently organised Uttarakhandi NRI events New
Jersey, America
has shown the potential our artists have. They attracted a large number of NRI
Uttarakhandis from the US, Canada, even the UK. Now, Narendra Singh Negi,
Girish Tiwari 'Girda', Professor Shekhar Pathak and new generation artists like
Pritam Bartwan and Dangwal are going abroad to give their cultural
presentations.

The taste of the audiences is also changing across the world and they want to
films from different regions with subtitles. The international film festivals
are also giving space to regional and local films of the world. The artists and
the film community of Uttarakhand are growing on their own way without any
support of the Uttarakhand or Central government. Uttarakhand is a progressive
state of which about 40% of the community lives outside and it is hungry to
keep in touch with the roots by any means. Films are one of the best media
which can play an intermediary binding role.

The new digital technology has given tan opportunity local artistes to transfer
the cultural knowledge into digitally produced forms like VCD and DVD with
multilingual titling. The opportunity for the regional film industry not just
confined to the region, it has a global scope. The Uttarakhand government
should not forget the potential of the audio-visual media as compared to print.
Nauchami-Narayan was just an alarm to awaken the dysfunctional system and
governance. This example does not mean film-makers will always be against the
government but it does indicate the spread and popularity, as well as the
potential of the new digital media. There are about 16,000 villages in the
state with television sets as well as VCD and DVD players. If you calculate the
number of television sets by the counting number of families, a surprisingly
large number results. Now, almost every village is electrified and there is no
other means of entertainment. The regional films and VCD album have given them
a new way of entertaining themselves. The demand for such films and videos is
increasing by the day. Whether the Uttarakhand government considers this the
reality or not, the organisation, proper legal framework and policies, strategy
for regional film development and encouragement of regional talent pool are the
need of the hour.

It is necessary, therefore, for the government to consider this matter
seriously and form a regional Film, Television, Radio and New Media Board to
facilitate the process of regional programming and production. In the first
stage, government can initiate a state level body to serve all audio-visual
media by establishing a facilitation centre or a single window system for
permission and government assistance for shooting, registration of production
firms and companies, registration of writers, directors, editors, producers,
lyricists, singers, actors and technicians. The announcement of annual awards
for the best audio-visual work and holding of regional, national and
international film festivals annually would encourage film-makers. The
screening of such films in all film theatres of the state, at least for one day
in a week, could be made mandatory. All this would not entail a huge economic
burden on the Uttarakhand government. There is also the need for a regional
bench of the Film Censor Board in the state, for the facilitation of
certification of regional films and other related production.

(The writer is a freelance journalist and a documentary film maker - presently
a Ford Foundation media and digital film art fellow at the Australian National
University (ANU), Canberra,
Australia.)

Published in Garhwal Post (Please follow the link below)

http://www.garhwalpost.com/news_detail.php?news_id=2609

A memorable and nostalgic poem from my friend Jagmohan Singh Jayara “Jigyansu ji”.

"MELBOURNE"

a review of a travel documentary

The narration quality is some how manageable but not very attractive
or audience friendly. It could be better if some one else then Asha gives the
voice to this documentary. The narration which is mixed with music distracts
audience in many places. The sound quality of interview is also not very clear
in many segments. The hand held camera work is excellent but some segments
uncontrolled jerky shots distract the flow. The street shots especially the
visitors and local people are not well framed in the camera and also jerky, but
used very often in the documentary. However, the editor has done good job to
make a smooth flow of the documentary. The use of current music during shooting
is fine but the quality of recording is not up to the mark. In that, way the
shooting team has missed the charm and chance of live music recording during
the shooting around the city.

Documentary description

Name: Melbourne    Copyright:

Lonely Planet   Marketed by: SBS

Language: English Time: 47 Minutes                 Format:Pal Colour / DVD  

Reviewer:
Jayprakash Panwar 'JP'

"MARCH OF THE PENGUINS"

(A review of a documentary)

It was an obvious choice for "Academy Award" jury members of 2005 to give
recognition to the efforts of a team of "March of the Penguins" documentary. It
is a fantastic story of the life of Penguins surviving in an earth's harshest place called Antarctica. This documentary opens many folds of a life of a living creature. The DVD authorization is also excellent as it tells not only the story of Penguins but also presents the struggle of film crew. This documentary is now available in the video stores
across the world. For students, this is an eye opening documentary, which provides you a great learning in front of camera and in the background, pre production preparationand post production challenges. In another world, it gives students a handful experience through a documentary film. There are different segments of the documentary available in the DVD format. One segment is a full story telling style of a documentary with English subtitles for hearing impaired and another is a story of film crew. Though there is some more segments are also associated with the DVD, but above two are the most important. In this documentary, we can not deny the efforts of many Antarctica's scientific missions, who have given a thought to the different producers. The especially of this documentary is that it has taken more then 13 months to
complete the wonderful account of the Penguin's life. However, another aspect
of this documentary is that you can feel the good and the bad climatic
condition through this documentary. The producer and the director have chosen a
psychological path to attract viewers. It is like a Hollywood
film with a love story, cleverly chosen to play with the characters of
Penguins. This documentary film reveals the desire and a hunger of sex in the
living beings. In that way the film encourage and makes audience eager to know
what is next? The "March of the Penguins" is like a march of the Penguins to
fulfill their desire of sex and following on to make their society live for a
long. The description of this documentary, which is printed on the back of DVD
cover also, had chosen cleverly. It forces people to bye.

The style of storytelling is excellent; there is no doubt about the quality of
story writing and a matching narration and background music. The quality of
video footage and work of cinematographers is extremely amazing. In totality
this documentary film is one of the best documentary in all aspects, accept in
some places it unnecessarily waist the time. In my view, the perfect running
time of the film could be 70 minutes rather then 80.

Description:

Name: March of the Penguins

Director: Luc Jacquet

Produced By: Bonne Pioche

Marketed By: Roadshow Entertainment and National Geographic

Reviewer: Jayprakash Panwar 'JP'

my dear friend Mathew Antony’s suggestion….

thanks,
JP