The campus of the Asian Academy of Film & Television (AAFT) was on Friday buzzing with zeal and gaiety. The bubbly students were enthusiastically waiting with bated breaths for the inauguration of 58th AAFT festival of short digital films which was organized at Marwah Studios.

The chief guest of the event wad Dr. Bhishma Narain Singh, a noted Gandhian and former governor of seven States. Other dignitaries who were present included Raafat D Youssif, Head Information Bureau, Embassy of Egypt; Sandeep Marwah, Director, AAFT; Leonel Jose Te Oliveira, a visitor faculty from Brazil in AAFT; Ajay Kumar, Group Editor, State Times.

Inaugurating the film festival, Dr. Bhisma Narain Singh said, “India is known for three things which make it unique in the world that is IT, beauty, and spirituality”. Lauding the efforts of the students of AAFT who directed and produced films which were screened in the festival, Dr. Narayan said, “Today’s younger generation is more talented and future younger generation will be more talented.” He expressed his grief about the demise of noted Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande, who was also associated with AAFT, and added, “you must follow Mahatma Gandhi’s three important teachings – respect mother, respect motherland, and respect mother tongue”.

Sharing the essence of humanity with the students, he said, “To become a good human being you must have three qualities: lead a simple life, be a generous person, be an honest person”. He said that if you are educated then you must be humble. Narayan also recited an Urdu sher (poetic line) Ho Sake to Buzugo Ka Ihtiram Karna Yaad Rakhna Jannat Ki Kunji Unhe Ke Haath Hai (Respect your elders because the key to heaven is in their hands). Raffat D Youssif expressed his happiness over the historical ties between Egypt and India.

Recognizing the impact and reach of Indian cinema, he said, “Amitabh Bachchan is very popular in Arab countries because of the similarities of the culture and cinema. The only difference is the language”. The Egyptian cinema dominates the Arab world of around 22 countries which forms Arab League and Indian cinema, he added. He also mentioned the efforts of late president of Egypt and late Indian Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru who had utilized their efforts to form Non Alignment Movement (NAM) which is playing a neutral role in world affairs. Raafat invited Sandeep Marwah to open a film academy in Egypt. The State Times was an official partner in organizing this festival with AAFT.

Speaking on the occasion, State Times, group editor, Ajay Kumar said that the new medium of film making and the technological advancement has given an opportunity to other people apart from film industry to make films. “The technology nowadays use din filmmaking has democratized the whole process and has given an opportunity to even a layman to shoot a film with a mobile phone, “Kumar asserted of print and electronic media editors who earlier have the power to choose the content”. Sandeep Marwah informed that the event was being organized quarterly to highlight and analyze what AAFT students had done during the last three months.

Taking about the institute, Marwah asserted that AAFT was at par with the IITs and IIMs. He informed that the institute had created nine international records in media training. The AAFT has made 1100 short films, creating a world record. The most important announcement Kumar emphasised the need of practical training for the student. He also appreciated the role of new media – Internet – and said, “The Internet has cut short the authority Marwah made was of launching the first Internet TV very soon.

The screening of short digital films session began with the national song Vandematram sung by Lata Mangaskar followed by the short films directed by the students. The films screened are namely Sneha which was directed on the Nithari scandal which rocked the conscience of the nation. The Dairy, Moments Lost the Hell, How to care for Wife, the Realization and Road to Paradise were some of the other films screened at the festival.

Professor Harsh Vardhan, a faculty at AAFT briefed about the institution and its courses. Vardhan has been teaching in AAFT since 1993.

While proposing vote of thanks, the Dean of AAFT, Kalyan Sarkar, said that unfortunately the Indian films and Directors were not recognized until the stamp of Whites (Westerners). He gave the example of noted filmmaker Satayajit Ray by saying that no one would had known about Satyajeet Ray if his wonderful film ‘Pather Panchaali’ had not been recognized at the Cannes film festival.

Films like Sneha, directed by Ratanajeet Roy; The Dairy, directed by Vishant P Vinod; Moments Lost the Hell, directed by Yogendar C Kumar; How to care for Wife, Directed by Vishal Dixit; The Realization, directed by Prakash Chandra Gupta; Road to Paradise, directed by Dipu Ramachandran;

The Cocunut, directed by A.S. Gosain; and Checkmate, directed by Sunil Kumar were screened. The peculiarity of the films was that all the films were of short duration in which directors used their creativity to raise various issues.

In between the screening of serious and thought provoking films, the audience was enthralled to watch some superb music video like 60 years of independence Vandaematram, directed by Samarun Kumar; Babe, directed by Dipu Ramchandran and Music Video, directed by Ratanjit Roy.