FTII to be set up in Arunachal Pradesh, says Jitendra Singh

Chennai: The Centre will set up a Film and Television Institute in Arunachal Pradesh as part of an initiative to tap the potential of the North Eastern region, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region, Dr Jitendra Singh has informed.

“We are coming out with the first ever film and television institute in Arunachal Pradesh after Pune,” Mr. Singh, also Minister of State for Prime Minister's Office, said. This would be the second such one in the country after the first Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), an autonomous institute functioning under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, in Pune. Only two film shootings had taken place in Arunachal Pradesh in the last few decades, as the requisite infrastructure for film shootings and storing the equipment was not there in that state.

The south Indian film industry could take the lead in giving a fillip to the FTII there by shooting films in that state, Mr. Singh said while speaking at a conference 'Indian Entertainment Industry: Global Leader in Making' organised by Bharat Niti and South India Film Chamber of Commerce, here on Saturday. The film industry in the south, he said, had taken the lead in the early decades after Independence

“We did not have Bollywood or Tollywood at that time. We had (famous film studios) AVM, Gemini, L. V. Prasad dominating Bombay. All our leading film actors and actresses were from the South,” he said. “Political parties outsource 'drama companies' to reach the target audience through an optimum blend of social message and entertainment, because entertainment without social message would be a hollow entertainment,” he said.