‘Closure of Films Division will erase India’s audio-visual record’

Kolkata: The film fraternity in Kolkata has strongly reacted to the ministry of information and broadcasting’s decision to close all branches of the Films Division, National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Directorate of Film Festivals and Children’s Film Society of India before the end of January. This, they said, will particularly impact the Films Division, which has a branch in Kolkata, that looks into film production and conducting workshops in the northeast. In the wake of the process of merger of

Films Division

and CFSI with NFDC, the fraternity feels that the closure of these organizations will result in erasing the audio-visual record of India.

The Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) is strongly protesting what it calls a “problematic move”. Its president, Kiran V Shantaram, has written a letter to the PM, requesting him to reconsider this merger. “The Indian chapter of International Federation of Film Critics is holding a national open seminar on this issue,” said Premendra Mazumder, vice-president, Federation of Film Societies of India. “Merger and reorientation of these organizations with NFDC might seem like a good thing, but it is far from the truth since NFDC has been turned into a limited company. Merging these bodies with a profit-earning organization means the welfare activities of these bodies can no longer be done. It will create a complex organizational behaviour and lose its original purpose. The thrust will become market-oriented as opposed to welfare-oriented,” Mazumder said.

National Award-winning director Sourav Sarangi said, “Producing a documentary on environmental issues is different from making a fictional film for children. As a film-maker, it makes no sense to me to merge the reputable institutions which will jeopardize the cinematic space of our country created over decades.”

Film-maker Debalina said, “The audio-visual content the Films Division has is invaluable. The current dispensation at the Centre is attaching no value to it. Independent film-makers who have been mak-ing films on real India since Independence have been aided by organizations like the Films Division. I don’t know what will happen to that now,” she said.

An employee of Films Division shared with TOI that in the recent order, some have been asked if they want to go to different centres of Central Board of Film Certification on a loan basis. “This means they will be sent elsewhere once the loan period is over. The government should come up with a plan on how to make this space better and more helpful to documentary film-makers of India,” the employee said.