CFSI's 'Little Directors' program to be introduced in Indian schools

Call it ‘catch ‘em young, grow them old’ or something else! Children's Film Society of India (CFSI), the State-run nodal organisation that produces children's films and various TV programmes in various Indian languages, has drawn up an ambitious plan to take its novel ‘Little Directors’ initiative to as many schools as possible across India in the coming days.

“The whole idea is to get the children engaged in making their own films- right from the stage of ideation, scripting, acting, directing and shooting etc. Our endeavour aims at getting the views of the children reflected in these films. We will then offer them the platform of a film festival and they can compete. We will provide these kids the platform to showcase their finished product,” said Shravan Kumar, CEO, Children's Film Society of India.

“In fact, I joined CFSI with a dream of providing several platforms to children to bring their dream on the celluloid. I have been engaged in this for the past three years and the results have been fantastic. We received 181 films made by the ‘Little Directors’, a concept that has now shaped up into an international quality section in our children’s film festivals,” said Kumar.

The children’s film body is also working with the FTII and other organisations to inculcate and enhance the culture of film making among children. The classic films of CFSI are now being dubbed into many regionallanguages and will be shown throughout the nation for greater impact. CFSI under Kumar’s stewardship has also initiated a unique method of generating revenues by teaming up with multiplexes wherein the latter give CFSI the theatres and CFSI brings to them bulk booking by schools and children.

This process has become even more simpler hen the CFSImobile app was launched last year. Now all that they can do is go to the app, choose a theatre nearest to them, give CFSI the booking and the rest is taken care of by CFSI. It works well for both CFSI as well as the multiplex, as revenues are definite unlike a regular release mechanism, wherein there are huge investments required for release of films, he said.

With the industry being mostly focused on making films for grown-ups and that too with a commercial intent, one of the crucial tasks and a challenge for CFSI is to encourage and promote new film makers in children film category.

“While the industry does have huge budgets, and makes big blockbusters, there isn’t much spend on the children’s films. We hope to have big names showing interest in making films for children. In the past, CFSI had many noted film-makers, who worked closely and directed many films that received accolades globally. We will be extremely happy to be associated with established personalities of the current times, who can engage with CFSI in making films for children. Recently, Purple Pebble Films has announced three film projects for children, which is an encouraging development, said Kumar.

Significantly, at CFSI, every year, at least two feature films and one short film are made in different languages. In the current fiscal, it has completed two films from North East - 'Ishu' in Assamese language and 'Nani Teri Morni' in Nagamese, a Hindi feature film Tennis Buddies' and an English short film 'Cake Story'. Around eight more films are nearing completion.

“Looking at the number of amazing entries we received while curating our national and international film festivals, I believe around 100-150 films are made for children in India every year,” said Kumar.