Cinema is the most scientific art and the most potent of all arts to reach out to people, said Adoor Gopalakrishnan, film maker.
Presenting awards to the best scientific films at the 98th Indian Science Congress at SRM University, he said he could not think of cinema without physics and chemistry. While artistic imagination was shown in films, science achieved whatever artists imagined. Intricate and complex issues could be demonstrated effectively through films which could get close to an element or fact however evasive. Cinema was the closest to reality in terms of reproduction. Deep understanding of the subject and effective handling of the medium was necessary to reach out to people. “There is no better way to reach out to the audience than films,” he said.
He presented awards to the best films in three categories of ‘Rashtriya Vigyan Chalchitra Mela' organised by Vigyan Prasar of the Department of Science and Technology. The Golden Beaver awards were presented to Seema Muralidhara (popular science), Anita Gupta of Central Institute of Educational Technology, NCERT (short film) K.S. Madhu of Hibiscus Digital Media (animation).
Prasar director Anuj Sinha said the new genre of science films will improve knowledge, attitude and behaviour to ensure people are rational. Science film maker Gauhar Raza announced the winners.