CFSI wants weekly slot on DD, more grants from I&B

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CFSI wants weekly slot on DD, more grants from I&B

MUMBAI: Doordarshan should reserve a weekly slot for children‘s movies and the Indian government pour more money into such genre of movies, a senior executive of the Children‘s Film Society of India (CFSI) said.

The CFSI, affiliated to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, expects the government to increase its allocation to Rs 100 million in FY‘13, up from Rs 70 million this fiscal.

"For years the CFSI was getting a grant of Rs 40 million, which was raised to Rs 70 million this year. Next year, hopefully, the grant is expected to be raised to Rs 100 million," said CFSI CEO Sushovan Banerjee.

Doordarshan doesn‘t give ample coverage to children‘s films. "Compared to other countries, our pubcaster doesn‘t have a children‘s film slot. We have talked to the I& B Ministry, which has agreed in principle that children‘s film should get a weekly slot. The implementation is now left to Doordarshan," said Banerjee.

CFSI has also started talking to film marketers to market their films on a revenue-share basis. Though the CFSI makes educative and entertaining films for children, it is not able to market and screen their films properly.

"The films made by CFSI are very strong in content, but it is the marketing that we lag in. Hence we are now talking to film marketers to market our films on a revenue-share basis. We are also talking to several distributors to distribute our films," averred Banerjee.

Co-productions is another area CFSI is keen to exploit more aggressively. "We are seriously thinking of going in for co-productions," said Banerjee.

CFSI has tied up with various film institutes. "In our festivals, we are also opening up a slot called ‘Little Directors‘ through which we will encourage children to pick up their cameras and shoot films. Our endeavour is to build a future set of filmmakers," said chairperson Nandita Das.