One thing that sets filmmaking apart from other careers is the sheer number of exciting possibilities it offers. It is a bustling world that draws sustenance from a pool of talent across all art mediums. It’s an amalgamation of art and technology and offers diverse careers such as film-direction, editing, cinematography and acting.
India’s film industry, world’s largest in terms of ticket sale and number of films produced, is expanding globally and has attracted significant collaborations with global corporations like the 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney, and so on.
Film-viewing has undergone a change and filmmakers are experimenting, and successfully, with new ideas, mediums and techniques. Digital media has been the most revolutionary, threatening to completely do away with the celluloid in the next few years. The new media involves more sophisticated equipment and greater skills. Since these equipment come expensive, it is not possible for common people to own them and begin learning by “just handling them myself,” as was common with traditional media, or even through apprenticeship. Therefore, professional training in institutions becomes necessary because only institutions can afford it.
Sekhar Das, a Kolkata-based film director, says one needs to work on one’s knowledge of life and what’s happening around. “Art imitates life,” Mr. Das says. “So it is important for one to keep abreast of what’s happening around, including socio-politics, in order to produce a work of art that is true to life.”
Top institutes
Film and Television Institute, Pune, and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, are two top institutes of the country offering various courses in filmmaking. Being government-funded, the course fees are subsidised. Whistling Woods International, Mumbai, set up by Mukta Arts Production, in 2006 has made quite a name for itself for its state-of-the-art technology. This apart, there are institutes such as the Centre for Research in Art of Film and Television, Delhi; Asian Academy of Film and Television, Noida; L.V. Prasad Film and TV Academy, Chennai, to choose from.
