The implementation of numerous new regulations, the opening of institutions’ doors after two years, and the emergence of a hybrid model of education all point to the education system being on the verge of a significant transformation. Changes are unavoidable in the new situation, and leaders are making every effort to adapt. Putting their focus on the youth-in-arts community in Kolkata, LOK Arts Collective in collaboration with SVF presented Bengal Content Fest 1.0, a three-day festival that featured masterclasses from industry leaders followed by content creation competitions for festival attendees from schools, colleges, and independent youth arts groups. The SVF DI Room at Acropolis Mall served as the venue for the event.

The three-day-long festival witnessed participation from aspiring learners and was addressed by industry stalwarts like Amit Masurkar (Director of Sherni, Newton) on his Filmmaking and storytelling process, Anirban Bhattacharya on Screenwriting, Anindya Chatterjee on Songwriting, Dhrubo Banerjee on Direction and Content Pitching and Riddhi Sen on Screen Acting whereas, Bickram Ghosh and Ranjan Moitra will be presenting a session on Music Direction, Background Score, Editing and Sound Design respectively. To increase more variations in styling & looks, fashion designer Abhisek Roy shared details of costume designing aspects.

In addition to providing free professional advice and industry exposure through masterclasses by illustrious members of the film fraternity, the festival was created to empower and nurture the next generation of creative talents, build a community and platform for young artists, and to give them the chance to demonstrate their abilities to a wider audience.

Soumyajit, part of the Global Changemakers Network after being inducted in 2011, said “I am the by-product of the Kolkata school-college festival circuit and the formerly robust independent youth-in-arts community here. After participating in more than 25 different feature films, mostly as an actor or line producer/casting director, in Bengali, Hindi, and a few other languages, I made the decision to take a vacation from everything else starting in November 2017 and pay honor to my roots. I returned to Kolkata with the Bengal Content Fest while LOK’s first feature film, #Homecoming, is currently having a fantastic festival run after being successfully released as a direct-to-digital on Sonyliv. This idea has come to reality thanks to the visionaries at SVF’s collaborative and continuous support. More than 5000 people participated”.

Bengal Content Fest is a first-of-its-kind youth talent hunt competition in West Bengal across schools, colleges, and independent entries for identifying and nurturing young talents fit for the film, entertainment, and content creation industry.