Award winning regional language films to be telecast on DD

Doordarshan Television Network will recommence telecast of Indian Panorama and award winning regional language feature films on its national channel from March 4, thanks to the pressure mounted by prominent filmmakers from all over the country.

The films, telecast of which was stopped in view of the commencement of 24-hour telecast on many of its regional channels which are beamed via satellite, will now be telecast on Sundays at 1130 hours (IST) on DD One.

Those offering regional films to Doordarshan will have to give these for non-exclusive multi-telecast rights for three years.

The Prasar Bharati board had hiked the payment for these films last November. This will apply to the revival on these films on DD One also. Thus against the earlier fixed payment of Rs 8,00,000 for all categories, the payment will now be Rs one million for all Indian Panorama or other national award winning films. It will be Rs 1.2 million for Silver Peacock and Rs 1.5 million for Golden Peacock awardees.

The board was forced to revise its decision following strong protests from these filmmakers including Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. The protestors also included filmmakers like Buddhadeb Das Gupta, Aparna Sen, Girish Kasaravalli, Saeed Mirza, Jahnu Barua, and K Bikram Singh.

Angry filmmakers sent letters to the part-time members -- Mr BG Verghese, Professor UR Rao and Dr Abid Hussain - strongly protesting against the decision.

As a result, Mr Verghese gave an assurance that the matter would be re-examined at the next meeting.

The filmmakers said one of the main aims of the telecast was to make people of one region aware of the filing of other regions and this was not possible if they were confined only to the channels in that particular language.

In his letter to the then Prasar Bharati Chief Executive Officer RR Shah, Mr Gopalakrishnan wrote 'Our efforts of a long time to foster a better film culture and a nation-wide audience for quality cinema would now get automatically undone.'

In their letters, the filmmakers asked whether 'the nation and its official representatives have now decided that commerce is the only measure of cultural worth'.

Holding that the films represented the best that India offers (in any given year) both in terms of their content and aesthetic appeal, he said that 'depriving these films a slot on the national network is not merely a rejection of their artistic and cultural worth, but a denial of any opportunity for the people of the country to access them. Most of these films made under unhelpful and strained conditions by a few uncompromising filmmakers find screening difficult if not impossible in commercial cinemas'.

Initially, these films were telecast at prime time on Sundays but were later shifted to Saturday mornings.

Doordarshan had also restricted the categories of films, which could be telecast in this slot.

The present categories are: the best feature film, the Indira Gandhi Award for the best debut director, the Nargis Dutt award for National Integration, the best film providing wholesome entertainment, those that win awards for family welfare and social issues, the regional language awards, and those that win awards in international festivals.

UNI