Arunanchal Pradesh to get its first Film and Television Institute, declares Union Minister Jitendra Singh

Chennai: Arunachal Pradesh would get its first Film and Television Institute, being set up by the union government as part of tapping the potential of the North Eastern region, Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh said on 8 January. [caption id=“attachment_4292641” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Film and Television Institute of India. File image.[/caption] This would be the second such one in the country. The first Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was set up in Pune, an autonomous institute operating under the Information and Broadcasting Ministry. “We are coming out with the first ever film and television institute in Arunachal Pradesh after Pune”, Singh, also Minister of State for Prime Ministers Office and Development of the North Eastern region, said. This was part of tapping the potential of the North Eastern region, he said. Singh said he learnt that 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. He said the south Indian film industry could take the lead in giving a fillip to the FTII there by shooting films in that state. The film industry in the south, he recalled, 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 from the South”, he said. Singh was speaking at a conference Indian Entertainment Industry: Global Leader in Making organised by Bharat Niti and South India Film Chamber of Commerce. Singh, who was part of BJPs election campaign during the recent Gujarat polls which the party won, 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.