Over 500 features made in video format during 2006

NEW DELHI: Faced with an obvious resource crunch because of rising costs of filmmaking and rampant video piracy cutting into profits, more and more filmmakers are now opting to make their film on digital technology and video.

As many as 545 Indian feature films out of the total 1636 certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) during the calendar year 2006 were in video format. Thus 1091 films were in the celluloid format. Among the non-features, the CBFC certified 5569 in the video format against 1748 in the celluloid format.

A total of 7097 certificates were issued to video films during the year. Of these, there were 545 Indian feature films, 744 foreign feature films, 5494 Indian short films, 235 foreign short films, 75 Indian and 4 foreign films belonging to the “Others” category (long films other than feature)

The CBFC issued a total of 10551 certificates during the year 2006, as against 7417 during 2005. A total of 3454 certificates were issued to celluloid films and 7097 certificates to video films during this period, which included 336 foreign feature films in Celluloid format.

In the Indian feature films category, the highest number 245 were in the Telugu language, followed by Hindi with 223 films, and Tamil with 162. Films in Malayalam, Bhojpuri, Kannada and Marathi language were next with 77, 76, 75 and 73 certifications respectively.

Out of the 1636 Indian feature films (Celluloid and Video) certified during the period, 1130 were granted “U” certificates, 270 “UA” certificates, and 236 “A” certificates. Similarly, of the 1080 foreign feature films certified in the year, 460 were granted “U” certificates, 269 “UA” certificates, and 351 “A” certificates.

The Board certified a total of 7242 Indian short films during the period January to December, 2006, of which 6717 were granted “U” certificates, 359 “UA” certificates, 165 “A” certificates.