New courses at Roopkala Kendro

SALT LAKE: West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee inaugurated five diploma courses on various aspects of video production at the Roop Kala Kendro on Monday.
The courses are on development communication, animation creation and direction, video direction, motion picture photography and editing. Each course has a duration of two years. The centre was set up in April 2000 for production and training in the area of social communication using video technology.
“We are a production as well as a training institution.The Centre has started video production in the area of social communication. As a video production centre, our objective is to produce professional quality video in non-fiction as well as fiction mode. We also plan to tie up with the mainstream television channels and local groups and NGOs and panchayats,� Kendro director Anita Agnihotri said. It will also generate necessary material for social communication campaigns, she added. 25 students have enrolled for these courses.
The centre has a technical collaboration with the Italian government. “Italy has supplied us with equipment worth around Rs 5 crore. Our faculty members have received extensive training in Italy,� Agnihotri said.
Speaking on the occasion, Bhattacharjee hoped that the students make video films on socially relevant themes.