Thoda gyan, thoda fun at Fest-o-Comm

WHAT'S ON spoke to Ujjwal Choudhary, Director of Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communications, about the theme of their annual festival and the inspiration behind it

WHAT'S ON spoke to Ujjwal Choudhary, Director of Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communications, about the theme of their annual festival and the inspiration behind it

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Fest-O-Comm, the annual festival organised by the Media department of Symbiosis, has been on for the last nine years. The eight-day festival will include debates, discussions, entertainment programmes and various competitions.

Choudhary: There is no really big festival from the media and communication institutes. Ours is the only one, which is at a national level. This is the ninth year and we have been trying to introduce something new every year. This year, we have the Digital Film Festival, which includes films, photography, music, and gaming. For the first time, we also have a National Media HR Summit, where media professionals will discuss issues related to the media.

Tell us more about the DigitAll Movement.

Choudhary: Digital revolutionising has made the process of filmmaking cheap and undemocratic in the analogy medium. It has become easy to make movies through this medium by just spending a few lakhs. It has become a major part of our life and even small-town professionals and communities are thinking of getting into this medium. Every thing you can think of is digitalised, including music, photography and games.u00a0

Do you think you will be able to make any difference through the Combat Terror activity?

Choudhary: We want to take forward the Peace Charter Combat Terror initiative so that we can make a difference to the world. This is not a one-day programme and it will be carried forward in the coming years by the juniors of the college.

The whole idea struck us 10 hours after the Mumbai terror attack on November 26, 2008, when we had two seminars ( in Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar on November 27). We had then decided that we will take a pledge to raise our voice against all kinds of terrorism, including Hindutva, Naxal or world terrorism in whatever way
we can.

Because of the recession, students are in a very low mood. What is the kind of response you have got?

Choudhary: There are more than 300 students participating throughout the country, plus 952 students who have applied to our institution for the 2009 programmes. Students are in great form and it's amazing to see 130 students working hard for four months on each and every minute detail of the event.

At: Symbiosis Knowledge Campus, Lavale. Call: 020-39116124. Timings: From 9 am to 9 pm

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