Assam State Film (Finance and Development) Corporation has several plans to uplift the ailing film industry of the state. The corporation will resume the state film awards from this year which couldn’t be continued for the last several years. Several new schemes were also announced by culture minister Naba Kumar Doley on Friday.
“We want to resume the state film awards which is very important to motivate the filmmakers, actors and other people involved in the film fraternity,” said Doley addressing a press conference.
The state film awards which were instituted in 1998, couldn’t be continued for the last three years. This year, the event will take place from May 11 to May 13.
Doley also informed the media that Rs 5 crore has been already allocated in the budget for various activities for films.
ASFFDC chairperson and prominent actor Jatin Bora said that they will also organize a film festival alongside the film award ceremony.
“The best of the Assamese and other local language films will be screened during the festival along with the award ceremony. Besides, we are also planning to give 100 percent subsidy to the filmmakers,” said Bora.
A committee will review the scripts submitted by the filmmakers and the selected scripts will be provided subsidy by the ASFFDC.
Bora, further, said that special measures have also been adopted to uplift the cinema halls across the state. Accordingly, Rs 50 lakh will be provided for new cinema halls while Rs 25 lakh will be given for revamping the old halls.
Apart from that, the ASFFDC is also building a cinema hall with all modern facilities for the screening of Assamese films at the premises of its office in the city.
“It should be completed within this year and once it’s completed, I’m sure our filmmakers will have a good facility to screen their films. Besides, we are also digitizing the old Assamese films in our archive. Accordingly, we have planned to do at least 50 such films out of 135 in our archive which includes several classics,” added Bora.
The ASFFDC is also planning to organize a children’s film festival in June this year.
