27 December 2000

NO MORE FILM FESTIVALS BY GOVERNMENT

From Jal Khambata

NEW DELHI: There may be no more government-sponsored national and international film festivals as the Finance Ministry is examining a recommendation of the Expenditure Commission to wind up the Directorate of Film Festivals and leave it up to the film industry to organise such festivals.

The Government may limit itself to only giving the national film awards if the Expenditure Commission's recommendation finds favour in the Union Budget as it says this task can be handled by a small cell in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry instead of spending Rs 12.72 crores per annum on the Directorate.

Other proposals of the Commission relating to the film industry under consideration are to wind up the Children's Films Society, Pune's Film and Television Institute of India and the Satyajit Ray Films and Television Institute of India at Calcutta.

The Commission wants that the two institutes be handed over to the film industry while production of children's films be transferred to the reputed Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) engaged in child welfare activities who may be provided with funds instead of maintaining the Children's Film Society at a whopping cost of Rs 6.65 crores per annum.

"The world trend is one of insisting that all TV channels including private channels should spare telecasting time for programmes of interest and relevance to children. If need be, by legislation, it should be made mandatory for all TV channels in India also to telecast such programmes and at timings appropriate for viewing by children, the Commission recommended.

The Directorate of Film Festivals was set up in 1973 with the objective of promoting good cinema by organising film festivals in India and abroad and thus help in the growth of the Indian films. The Expenditure Commission, which submitted its third report to Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha last week, has recommended that the film industry be asked to organise film festivals and also handle participation in such festivals.

"A matter worthy of notice in this context is that the Government almost invariably comes under criticism from the industry in regard to organisation of film festivals. The Ministry, however, could continue the National Film Awards for the purpose of recognising films and artistes of creative excellence," the Commission said.

The Government spends Rs 11.17 crores on the Film and Television Institute of India set up at Pune in 1970. The Expenditure Commission report says: "A budget of over Rs.11 crore per annum for the institute, of which staff expenditure is around 34 per cent, is patently disproportionate to the student strength of around 153 persons."

"There are also a number of private film and television training institutions in the country. Therefore, the Ministry could divest itself of this Institution and may explore the possibility of the Film Industry creating an Association or Agency and taking it over, details of asset transfer being carefully worked out so as to safeguard government investments," says the report while suggesting that the model of disinvestment/privatisation of PSUs can be used for the purpose.

"As Film Industry directly or indirectly provides employment opportunities in several film related vocations like cinematography, editing, processing, dubbing, film advertisement etc., apart from acting and directing, vocational training capabilities of the Institute should be built up and larger number of trainees should be inducted. This should be done whether it be through the new dispensation of the Institute being taken over by the Industry or if that does not materialise, in the existing dispensation itself," the report added.

The Expenditure Commission, set up by the Finance Minister last year while presenting his budget to Parliament, has been examining working of various departments under each ministry to recommend measures to cut down the government expenditure and the matters concerning the film industry came under its review while looking into the functioning of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

The Centre Board of Film Certification, based in Mumbai with its nine regional offices in various cities, also came under scrutiny of the Commission which said "film certification is statutory work and hence it has to be necessarily continued." It also did not recommend closing down of any regional centre as it pointed out that the film production takes place in different parts of the country requiring centres for certification at different locations.

It may be mentioned here that all films, whether Indian or foreign, require the film certification before they can be exhibited in India and as such the Board has the gigantic task of viewing and clearing more than 3,000 films every year and these include celluloid films, video films covering features as also long and short categories. In 1997, the Board had certified as many as 3359 films, while the number dropped to 3209 in 1998 and again rose to 3438 in 1999. END