A special panel discussion session on Effects of Indian Cinema and Media on Youth Today was organized at ICC Young Leadership Conclave at the Lalit Great Eastern, Kolkata.

The session was moderated by writer and columnist, Jeena Mitra Banik. The session was graced by film director Sanjay Nag, Gaurav Pandey, Indrashish Acharya, model and fitness enthusiast Mohammad Iqbal and Kaushik Pal, editor of Anandalok.

Speaking about what is wrong with the state of Bengali films Gaurav Pandey said “Bengali directors are still obsessed with telling great stories. But the style of film making has gone beyond telling good stories. Now the focus is on the content and this must be understood by the film makers so that the style of film making can be changed”.

Indrashish Acharya mentioned that in Bengali film industry new ideas are not much propagated. “The audience have been fed crap for the last so many years and now new ideas are not much liked by the audience. Films with new ideas get appreciation outside Bengal but are not much popular in Bengal. So you see where lies the problem” said the director.

Sanjay Nag highlighted on the fact that the film fraternity must accept the fact that the Bengali films are not doing well. “Merely throwing success parties do not ensure that the film is doing well. We do not have any calculation about how the film is doing like turnover of a film. There is no clarity here. So it becomes a big problem to know how the film is truly doing” said Sanjay Nag.

The panellist accepted wholly that changes need to be done in the film fraternity and the film makers need to accept the fact that they must change themselves as per the trends going on in film making all over the world. Only then can Bengali films progress and the youth will be excited to see the films.

Priyanka Dutta