Govt to give a modernisation package to Films Div soon

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) The Government will soon come out with a package for modernisation of the Films Division , India's premier documentary film producer, which is a repository of the country's history since its independence.

The announcement was made here tonight by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi after inaugurating a series of exclusive documentary film festivals as part of the year-long diamond jubilee celebrations of the Films Division.

''We will do it before 15 August,'' the Minister said .

He said the work of digitisation of the Films Division was going on at a fast pace with 6000 documents already digitised and by the end of the year, 95 per cent of the work would be completed. The Prime Minister was very keen that this task should be accomplished as soon as possible, he said.

The Minister advised the Chief Producer of FD Kuldeep Sinha to make arrangements for showing to research scholars and other interested persons films of a particular period or series connected with particular happenings.

The Films Division has completed six decades of its existence.

It was established in 1948 at the initiative of national leaders, particularly Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Home Minister Sardar Patel, in order to document the progress of the Independent India.

The day country became independent, there was no official media to record the event, which was one of the strong reasons which prompted these leaders to set up the Films Division, said Chief Producer Kuldeep Sinha in his introductory and welcome remarks. Speaking to UNI on the occasion, noted film maker Mike Pandey, who also attended the inaugural function, said the FD had done very valuable service to the country, but with the changing time it has to ''reinvent'' itself.

The treasure of film documents possessed by the FD was unique in the whole world but it should try to make its presentations more interesting for the modern generation, he said.

The film festival-cum-exhibition inaugurated here today would be held in various parts of the country during the year.

A special issue of FD's quarterly magazine Documentary Today was also released and vetarn documentary filmmakers felicitated on the occasion. A photo exhibition, chronicling 60 years of the Films Division was also opened.

The inaugural films were 'Framing Times', a history of the Films Division, 'Rajiv gandhi', 'Don't Wait until Dark', and 'Inner Sound' Films Division has earned the distinction of the largest institutional body in the documentary film world with a voluminous 8000 films to its credit.

It has won hundreds of national and internatioinal awards besides two Oscar nominations.

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