The Maharashtra chapter of the Federation of Film Societies in India (FFSI) has decided to open around 30 new campus film societies in the coming months, in an effort to take the campus film society movement farther into the heartlands of the state. “We’ve come up with a new policy this year, wherein, besides setting up new film societies on college campuses across the state of Maharashtra, we are also working on coming up with a model for sustaining the growth of these campus film societies. The entire initiative will be done qualitatively as well as quantitatively,” said Virendra Chitrav, secretary for FFSI’s western region.

“Pune will play an important part towards the success of this entire campaign, as the city is home to some of the finest educational institutions in the country. Furthermore, the youth here has always been inclined towards films and other art related activities.  There are many campus film societies already in many colleges in this city, and this initiative will help these societies to grow and sustain for a longer period of time,” adds Chitrav.

The new campus film societies have decided to launch their activities from the next academic year with confirmations from 10 new colleges underway. “The stiffest challenge that we face right now is not only launching but also maintaining these campus film societies. Giving importance on expansion of this film society movement in colleges, we will be analyzing the response we get from students once the film societies are formed. Furthermore, we shall also take into account the rate of renewal of membership after the completion of a year of running of the film societies, and also the scope for more healthy discussions after the film screenings. Our long-term idea is to introduce short-term film courses and film festivals on each of these campus film societies, to be done phase-wise, which are run by the students,” said Chitrav.

The FFSI started opening film societies and clubs in college campuses across the country a few years ago in an attempt to include the youth to understand and spread film culture. The cause was revamped last year, with more than 15 campus film societies becoming operational in Maharashtra alone. The campus film societies have an appointed faculty to serve as the student members’ guide, and these societies arrange a couple of screenings every month, including discussions and other film-related activities throughout the year.
“We want the campus film society movement to create a new dimension in the world of cinema and benefit students in such a way that they imbibe the visual literacy imparted by films, which can contribute to their creative thinking,” said Chitrav.

In Pune last December, more than 30 college teachers from different colleges in the state were put through an orientation program held by FFSI, Maharashtra, which primarily focused on formation and maintenance of campus film societies. Half of these faculty members were representing colleges that have shown a keen interest in setting up campus film societies.

“Film clubs or societies are a great way to bring in like-minded people and indulge in some creative activities other than usual academic involvements. When we formed the Fergusson Film Club, initially very few people were aware of it, but now we hold screening every Saturday and even plan to shoot a short-film very soon,” says Kabir Kate, head co-coordinator of the club.

- Siddhartha Laik