Future of Global Cinema

The future of cinema is truly global as we are seeing more and more. More Indian films, Indian actors are making waves on the world stage than ever before. Indian films are being celebrated at the Oscars. At the Golden Globes. ‘Citadel’ the web-series starring Priyanka Chopra has become Prime Video’s most-watched ever. On the other hand, the best of the world’s cinema is now available to audiences from Srinagar to Sriperumbudur in their own mother tongue. The language of film is now being seen, heard and felt by the world’s most linguistically diverse nation.

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It is no surprise that we as a country have a lot to contribute to this global wave of cinema. Because we have a mind-boggling variety and magnitude of films—nearly 2000 a year—in over 20 languages, some of which are spoken by only a few thousand people like Chakma, Nagamese, Mizo and Sherdukpen. We also have a story-telling tradition that dates back to antiquity. Much like our films it was tradition that understood the importance of dance or nritya, emotion or bhav, expression or abhinaya and most-importantly the rasas—the building blocks of the craft of stage and screen acting.

On the financial side, the Indian film industry is also worth 15000 crore rupees and is growing. It is a sector that has been consistently giving jobs to people since more than 100 years. In its influence Indian cinema is second only to the American as our films are seen across the world: from China to the Middle East to the West Indies and wherever else the South Asian diaspora is found.

It is with a mind to celebrate Indian cinema that we at MIT World Peace University decided to launch the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film School in April this year at the hands of veteran actor Nana Patekar who appreciated our endeavour towards this end of bringing film education to people who need it most.

The Dadasaheb Phalke International Film School is the fruit of the vision of Shri Rahul Karad, Executive President of MIT-WPU, who has a firm belief that higher education in films would bring us at par with the rest of the world. His dream of creating in Pune a school that aims higher, dreams bigger and seeks out to create filmmakers of the future with strong roots in our own culture will be realised through our School. We are in this grand endeavour one with the philosophy of Shri Abhijit Panse, a filmmaker with a very clear and distinguished voice in the industry, who is the Creative Director of DPIFS. Of course all this would not have been possible without the original dream of our beloved founder Prof Vishwanath D. Karad who created a legacy of excellence in higher education with the MIT Group of institutions.

Dadasaheb Phalke International Film School is going to be a sangam or confluence of these legacies but with an eye on the future, where technology and the ability to tell stories across genres and styles is going to be key. We aim to create filmmakers, actors, cinematographers and sound designers who know their craft as well as have the capacity to think out of the box.

Currently, we are offering a BA Filmmaking programme that is one of the first in the country based on the new National Education Policy. In keeping with the NEP ours is a 4-year honours degree programme with multi exit options. Our faculty is exceptional with years of film industry experience. And to guide us in our journey into the future we have leading lights of the industry such as former Director, National School of Drama Waman Kendre, Gangs of Wasseypur music director Sneha Khanwalkar, actor and producer Atul Agnihotri to name just a few.

About the author:

Dhiraj Singh, Director of MIT-World Peace University’s Dadasaheb Phalke International Film School, Department of Media & Communication and ‘The Idea Lab’

Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s own and do not reflect/represent those of Shiksha