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Tag: Shankar Mohan

  • Government has no intentions to impose any regulations on the media: Javadekar

    Government has no intentions to impose any regulations on the media: Javadekar

    NEW DELHI: Newly appointed Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said today that freedom of the press is the cornerstone of a democracy and his first aim in his new portfolio will be to find ways to strengthen this freedom.

     

    Speaking soon after taking charge of his portfolio, the Minister said that the media and politicians must work together to highlight the problems of the people and bring them before the government.

     

    Describing himself as ‘just a soldier’, he said he had always stood for freedom of the press and had suffered a 16-month imprisonment during the national emergency in 1975 in this fight as he belongs to a family of journalists.

     

    Noting that the press has conducted itself in a responsible manner and set up self-regulatory bodies, he said the government would not impose any regulations on the fourth estate.

     

    The media in its present form gives a ‘rainbow of choices’ and even dissent has its own place in a democratic system of functioning. Constructive criticism is therefore welcome.

     

    Asked about the frictions with Prasar Bharati, Javadekar said he had not had time to study the issues yet but would like to work in partnership with all the autonomous media units including Prasar Bharati.

     

    He said in reply to a question that he did not agree with his immediate predecessor that there was no need for an Information and Broadcasting Ministry in the present context.

     

    Referring to social media, he said that while it presently came under the Information Technology Act, but he would study it and see how it can be helped. He said he would meet all the officials of the Ministry, understand the issues involved and then make some suggestions to the Prime Minister.

     

    Soon after meeting the media, he met senior officials of the Ministry and also media units, apart from Prasar Bharati CEO Jawhar Sircar and Director of Film Festivals Shankar Mohan.

     

    Contrary to expectations, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not upgraded the post of Information and Broadcasting to cabinet rank.

     

    Like his immediate predecessor Manish Tewari, Javadekar will be a Minister of State with independent charge of Information and Broadcasting Ministry. (He has also been given charge of Environment and Parliamentary Affairs). However, he has ample experience as far as dealing with the media and its problems are concerned, since he like Tewari has served as party spokesperson for the past few years.

     

    Javedekar has also been one of the nominated members from Parliament to the Press Council of India and hence has dealt with media issues such as paid news. A member of the Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra, Javadekar was born in Pune on 30 January 1951 and became associated with the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad in his young days.

     

    He commenced his professional life as an employee in the Bank of Maharashtra for 10 years from 1971 to 1981 and also worked in the Rural Development Department.

     

    His father Keshav Krishna Javadekar was a senior leader of Hindu Maha Sabha who worked as joint editor of Marathi Daily started by Lokmanya Tilak – Kesari before having stints with some other newspapers like Tarun Bharat and Kaal as journalist. He still occasionally writes his thoughts in some newspapers.

     

    Javadekar has been president of GLOBE India (Global Legislators Organisation for Balanced Environment); In-charge BJP Economic Forum and Cells related to Economy; President, NOINO (National Organisation of Insurance Officers) and president, KCKU (Khadi Commission Karmachari Union).

     

    As a member of Parliament, he has served as member of the Press Council of India; the Public Accounts Committee; Standing Committee on Human Resources and Development; Consultative Committee for Ministry of Power; Committee on Subordinate Legislation and Committee on Wakf.

     

    He has earlier served as executive president of the State Planning Board in Maharashtra (1995–1999); been a  member of the Maharashtra Legislative Council from Pune Division Graduate Constituency for 12 years from 1990; chairman of the Task Force on IT in Maharashtra (1977–1999) and chairman of the Working Group on ‘IT for Masses’ of the central government.

     

    He has also led a delegation to Boston to negotiate Media Lab Asia Project in 2000.

  • Shankar Mohan becomes Film Festivals director

    Shankar Mohan becomes Film Festivals director

    NEW DELHI: International Film Festival of India director Shankar Mohan has taken up an additional role. Mohan is now the director of the Directorate of Film Festivals.

     

     Mohan takes over from Rajeev Kumar Jain who has been moved to Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s film wing.

     

     A professional filmmaker, Mohan has been part of the DFF for 24 years. While holding charge as joint director in DFF, Mohan had been made director of the annual IFFI which is held in Goa in November every year.

     

     He also held concurrent charge as director of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata for two years from 2010, and had for one year also been Festival Director for the Mumbai International Film Festivals for Shorts, Documentaries and Animation films organised by the Films Division every alternate year. 

     

    Early in 2012, Mohan had sought voluntary retirement, serving three months’ notice but had later been convinced to withdraw this letter.

     

    Mohan, then joint director in the Director of Film Festivals, had been made IFFI director in 2011 following a high-level report to then Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni suggesting some changes to improve the status of IFFI and make it of international standard. 

  • IFFI to pay tribute to Pran

    IFFI to pay tribute to Pran

    MUMBAI: The 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) to be held in Goa from 20-30 November will pay tribute to the veteran actor Pran. The legendary Bollywood villain passed away in July this year. The festival will witness the screening of three of his most popular films – Jis Desh Main Ganga Behti Hai, Madhumati and Zanjeer.

     

    A true legend of Indian cinema, Pran defined the villain in Hindi cinema for over a decade and more in the 1960s and set the benchmark for the on-screen baddie, before carving out an equally glorious career as a character/supporting actor. As a film villain, such was the terror he infused in the hearts of film-goers that the apocryphal story goes that for over twenty years, when he ruled the world of cinema as a villain, no family in north India named a child ‘Pran’.

     

     Pran’s son Sunil Sikand and daughter Pinky Bhalla will be present for the screening. The film will be screened on the third and fourth day of the festival. Pran’s wife Shukla Sikand is also slated to attend the screening.

     

    IFFI director Shankar Mohan says, “As per the festival’s tradition, IFFI pays tribute to noted film personalities who passed away in the year preceding the festival. IFFI invites their family members, friends and well-wishers to attend the screenings of the artiste’s best works.”

     

    Last year, a special homage was paid to Yash Chopra at the festival.

  • IFFI to stage 20-minute dialogue between Dadasaheb Phalke and wife

    IFFI to stage 20-minute dialogue between Dadasaheb Phalke and wife

    MUMBAI: 2012 marks the centenary year of Indian cinema and what better way to celebrate the same by paying a tribute to the Father of Indian cinema, Dadasaheb Phalke. The 43rd international film festival will stage a 20-minute play with a dialogue between Phalke and his wife Savitri.

    Made by Phalke‘s grand niece, the play throws light on what inspired Phalke to make India‘s first full-leagth feature film Raja Harishchandra in 1913. “We have a biography on Dadasaheb Phalke made by his grand niece which we will showcase on November 21. We wanted to celebrate the 100 years of cinema and what better way to do it than this. It is a 20-minute dialogue between Phalke and his wife Savitri which will be adapted into a play,” said IFFI director Shankar Mohan in a statement.

    Besides this, the 11-day festival will also screen 26 feature films and 36 documentary and non-feature films to commemorate the centenary year of Indian cinema. “It is a special time this year as we complete 100 years, and so we have a collection of movies which will be screened. IFFI has changed a lot over the past years in terms of content and delivery and we aim to make it better each year,” Mohan added.

    The IFFI, that starts from 20 November will open with the screening of Oscar-winning filmmaker Ang Lee‘s Life Of Pi while it will close with Mira Nair‘s The Reluctant Fundamentalist.

  • FFI decides to boycott the IFFI 2012 for being ignored at every stage

    FFI decides to boycott the IFFI 2012 for being ignored at every stage

    New Delhi: The Film Federation of India, the apex body of the film industry, has decided to boycott all activities of the International Film Festival of India in Goa in November to protest it being by-passed and not being called to any Steering and other committee meetings.

    In fact, it was informed about the Industry Coordination Committee meeting as late as August-end by which time some major discussions that are normally taken at this meeting had already been taken by the Directorate of Film Festivals and IFFI Secretariat.

    FFI at its annual general meeting late last week in Mumbai where members from all over India were present unanimously decided that the federation will not participate in any of the activities of IFFI.
     
    FFI has always been an essential component of the Steering Committee and its members actively involved in various other committees and sub-committees such as theatre, technical, hospitality and others. But this has not happened in recent years and ‘FFI can only assume that either the committees have been discontinued or FFI has been kept out of them.‘

    According to FFI President Vinod Lamba, ‘it is now learnt that DFF has already taken all major decisions without calling for any joint meeting, or holding any discussions with the FFI; or even informing FFI.‘

    In fact, in 2011, the time-honoured tradition of the vote of thanks being delivered by the FFI President at the IFFI opening had been done away with at the level of the DFF ‘with no proper and timely information being conveyed formally to the Information & Broadcasting Ministry or FFI.‘

    Lamba added, ‘While this callous misadventure may appear to have been nipped in the bud and status quo restored, the deliberate mishandling of affairs at the inauguration event itself conveyed a greater affront to the persona and position of the FFI President, prompting the Minister (Mrs Ambika Soni) herself to rush on stage to take corrective action.‘

    The IFFI by its very tenets is a festival held jointly by the government and the Indian film industry, and FFI being the apex body of the industry ‘has been playing their part with total sincerity and efficiency.‘

    However, the same cannot be said of the Directorate of Film Festivals which has been persistently neglecting and slighting the FFI, in all matters that were once decided jointly.

    Talking to indiantelevision.com, Lamba added that despite an assurance of remedial action, it seems that the insensitiveness seems to have gathered strength; instead of involving the FFI and through it the industry from the early stages, it seems that the DFF/IFFI Secretariat is bent on sidelining the industry in the major decision making processes, reaching out to it only in times of dire need of correcting embarrassing foul ups. At the same time, he stressed that FFI has never shied away from providing assistance.

    Expressing surprise at the decision, IFFI Director Shankar Mohan told indiantelevision.com that he had been in constant touch with the film industry and it was erroneous to say they had been kept out. There has been constant coordination with the FFI, the Film and Television Producers Guild, and the Confederation of Cine Employees.

    He added that only two committees had been formed this year – the Steering Committee and a Technical Committee.

    He said he had been personally trying for the last month to arrange a meeting of the Industry Coordination Committee, but had failed to get a response.

  • Filmmaker Mike Pandey calls for more support to documentaries

    Filmmaker Mike Pandey calls for more support to documentaries

    NEW DELHI: Eminent filmmaker Mike Pandey, who was awarded the V Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award at the inauguration of the Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, short and animation films, feels a filmmaker‘s role in society is to share information that brings about a change and “that is what I constantly aspire to do through my films”.

    Pandey said during a press meet at the MIFF Media Centre in Mumbai today that “Documentary films are the backbone of a country and the Indian documentary film scene is now finally emerging after overcoming a stagnant period”.

    He said the government had also realised the importance of documentary films and informed media that a half-hour documentary chunk had been made available on Doordarshan. He said these films need to be supported by the state and central governments, people, as well as media.

    Digital technologies had opened a whole new vista of opportunities and had been responsible in broadbasing filmmaking, he said, adding that powerful and informative short films are being made using even the mobile phone camera.

    Pandey highlighted the need to make the documentary films entertaining as well, if the viewer‘s interests have to be sustained. He said the docu-drama format has opened many possibilities in this regard, as can be seen from the popularity of the History Channel.

    MIFF 2012 Festival Director Shankar Mohan underlined the commitment of the Ministry of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to promote documentary and short films.

    He said the Indian section of the competition has been reintroduced at MIFF 2012 to encourage documentary films by Indian film makers. Mohan also informed that the Prize money had been almost doubled.

    International Film Festival of India director Mohan has been asked to step in as Director of MIFF as Films Division Chief Producer Bankim Kapadia retired on 31 January.

  • IFFI to become top festival of the world in five years, says Shankar Mohan

    IFFI to become top festival of the world in five years, says Shankar Mohan

    PANAJI: The Information and Broadcasting Ministry has sectioned Rs 150 million for three theatres to be built at Margao to extend the reach of the International Film Festival of India throughout Goa.

    The state government is also contemplating building a convention centre housing at least 4000 people and a discussion centre at Panaji.

    Inaugurating the Open Forum organised for the Festival Directorate and the Entertainment Society of Goa by the Federation of Film Societies of India, Goa chief secretary Sanjay Srivastava said the Government is also considering setting up studios for post-production facilities for filmmakers and had already introduced single-window clearance for them. He noted that IFFI has helped in creating a film culture in Goa.

    Festival chairman of the steering committee Mike Pandey said Goa could become the cinema hub of the country. He felt that there is no point in making comparisons with Cannes or other Festivals since IFFI has its own identity and should work to become the largest in Asia. The aim is towards inclusive growth involving the government, filmmakers and film-goers. He expressed the hope that the Festival will be able to attract world premieres.

    Answering a question about attracting the cine glitterati, he said there is no point in calling people who walked out after formal functions and did not stay to see the films. He wants the film personalities to come and take part in the various activities relating to the Festival.

    Noting that IFFI had seen a ‘re-birth‘ this year, Festival Director Shankar Mohan said he expected IFFI to be at the top in five years. He said new sections had been introduced because the aim was to reach out to the younger crowds. This was the reason for the ‘large buffet of sumptuous cinema‘, he said, adding that the vision was to go global.

    The IFFI is industry-oriented unlike most other international festivals which are market-oriented, he added.

    Answering a question about making films available to people after the festival through DVDs, he said issues relating to the Copyright Act or permissions from the rights holders had to be overcome before this could be done. However, he said DVDs of already-released Indian films were already available in the market.

    Entertainment Society of Goa chief executive officer Manoj Srivastava expressed pride that the Festival has a digital films section, noting that he has introduced acceptance of films made in digital format for the National Film Awards almost a decade earlier.

    He agreed that there is need to hold road shows or presentations to attract more people in the film industry from all over the country.

    FFSI President Narahari Rao said the Directorate should become an umbrella for all other film festivals in the country and help them. There was need to bring in more people from the younger generation.