Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Manish Tewari, on Saturday said that while there was a proliferation of media and channels for expressing one’s opinion and views, the ability of people to tolerate and understand was shrinking.
No respect for creativity
It was a paradox and there was a need for people to be extremely cautious in expressing their views because it had implications of speech and expression. In over six decades of Independence, till the time people did not respect creativity, it would shrink, even get submerged, he said, adding that all thinking people concerned about growth of liberal art have to stand up and together safeguard art. He was addressing the gathering after presenting the Akkineni International Foundation’s Akkineni Nageswara Rao National Award 2012 to filmmaker Shyam Benegal here.
He said instead of being creative criticism, expression of views had become corrosive and hence the need for people concerned to introspect about the challenges ahead.
Award for Shyam Benegal
Mr. Tewari, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, Member of Parliament T. Subbarami Reddy, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Venkat and Nagarjuna Akkineni together gave away the award, the citation and the cheque for Rs. 5 lakh to Mr. Shyam Benegal.
Gratefully acknowledging the award, the filmmaker whose roots are in Hyderabad, said he was ‘overwhelmed, delighted, deeply honoured and humbled’.
Nagarjuna’s lighter side
Mr. Nagarjuna, who proposed the vote of thanks, had the audience in splits when he said Mr. Kiran Kumar Reddy was his junior in school.
“If I had known we had a Chief Minister amidst us at that time, I probably would have made friends and impressed him then itself.”
