Backed by live entertainment, red carpet walk, international look and feel and revamped award categories, the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry has decided to make the 57th national film awards night on October 22 an international television experience for both the viewers and the winners.
Doordarshan will air the event ‘live’ and the I&B ministry is encouraging private news channels to cover the red-carpet as an event.
“There will be a red-carpet welcome to the awardees where they would be able to interact with the media and fans. Also, there will be live performances by the singers during the award function. This is a departure from the more formal kind of national film awards conducted in previous years,” a government official connected with the awards function said.
The 57th National Film Awards of India (NFAI) for 2009 will be presented on Friday by the president Pratibha Patil. The awards were announced last month and the awardees include Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Raj Kumar Hirani, Shyam Benegal and Farooque Sheikh among others. The resurgence of the NFAI has been a highlight for Ambika Soni, the I&B minister as before her tenure there were no awards announced for the previous three years. “Not only did the the the backlog of NFAI has been cleared, industry participation and feedback as made it more current and modern,” an official in the I&B ministry said.
The NFAI are organised by the directorate of film festivals under the I&B ministry each year. According to official sources, the revamp of the NFAI is in line with the I&B ministry’s comprehensive strategy to push India on the global film map. Earlier this year during the prestigious Cannes film festival in France, a large delegation of government and film industry representatives had gone to promote India as a lucrative film destination. Even from the event point of view, the NFAI is organised with budgets at ess than 10% of the Bollywood-based awards.