State minister Sushanta Chowdhury said ‘Tripura is set to get its first film institute, under the aegis of Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata’.
The Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) will start its campus in Tripura from October this year with several short-term courses, Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Sushanta Chowdhury said Friday.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state government and SRFTI would be signed to that effect as soon as the governing council of the Kolkata-based institute clears it.
The institute at Nazrul Kalashetra here will be inaugurated on October 31.
Chowdhury said the government has allocated Rs 5.76 crore in the budget for the film institute project and added Rs 1.10 crore have already been released for initiating the process.
Initially, four certificate courses – Film Appreciation, Screen Acting, Production Management for Cinema and Television and Anchoring/News Reading — will be offered to the students, said the state information and cultural affairs (ICA) minister.
“We had a detailed discussion with the director, registrar and technical persons of SRFTI in Kolkata recently over the opening a film institute in Tripura. They gave given a go-ahead for the courses,” Chowdhury said at a press conference on Friday.
“We feel this will open the doors for the students, who want to make it in the film industry. We want to start with short-term courses and hope to start degree and diploma courses in future depending on the response,” he told reporters at the state secretariat.
The state government has allocated Rs 5.75 crore for the project, and the PWD department is undertaking necessary work to give Nazrul Kalashetra a facelift. The minister also said the course would provide essential skills for the youth to promote the state’s culture through films along with generating employment opportunities for them.
A team of the state government headed by the minister met the SRFTI executives on September 5 and decided a timeline for starting the institute. As per the schedule, the advertisement inviting applications for admission would be published on September 20.
Taking a dig at the erstwhile regimes, Chowdhury said despite the long-standing demand for a film institute in Tripura among a section of youth, the previous governments never took any step to set up one.
Hoping that the proposed institute will open more opportunities for the youth, he said that those willing to take make a career in film and allied sectors would be immensely benefited.
The first convocation ceremony would be held on February 15 next year.
Why can’t we do it if our neighbours can? Assam, Manipur, West Bengal have flourishing film industries. Based on the feedback we receive from the new institute, diploma and degree courses may be introduced there in the near future,” he added. PTI PS RMS RMS.
Academic activities at the new institute were expected to begin in November, the minister said.
