FFSI general secretary post moves out of Kolkata after 45 years

Mumbai, Sep 19 (UNI) Mr Sudhir Nandgaonkar, founder of the Prabhat Chitra Mandal, has been elected as the general secretary of Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI).

The election was held recently in Hyderabad where Mr Nandgaonkar defeated his nearest rival Ajay Sengupta. Nandgaonkar polled 30 votes while Sengupta bagged 17 votes from the FFSI's Central Council.

Out of the total 60 members, 47 were present for the voting.

FFSI was founded by filmmaker late Satyajit Ray who remained its president till his death. Later, Mrinal Sen took over. Rajya Sabha member and noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal was elected for the first time as FFSI president in 2003. But, the post of general secretary remained with Kolkata.

Last week in Hyderabad, Mr Benegal was re-elected president.

While Mr Nandgaonkar was elected general secretary.

Talking to UNI, Mr Nandgaonkar said the registered office of FFSI will remain in Kolkata as the entire film fraternity of India respects Satyajit Ray who belongs to the city.

''Only the working of the office will shift to Mumbai because both the president and general secretary hail from here'', he said.

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