Latest news with #SamiranDatta
Time of India
31-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
SRFTI signs MoU with Indian horror film festival to showcase genre's popularity
Kolkata: The horror genre in India made a huge turnaround from its early associations with films of B-grade status, made on low budgets and of poor quality, to the recent success of franchises and films like 'Khauf', 'Stree 2', 'Shaitaan', 'Chhori', and 'Munjya' on both screens and OTT platforms. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Keeping an eye on this growing interest, the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Deemed To-Be University (SRFTI DTBU) signed an MoU with India's first horror/sci-fi/fantasy film festival to highlight the global importance of this genre. This is the first time when a govt-run film school in India is trying to course-correct the perception about Indian horror among its students, with plans for screenings, and introducing cosplay on campus. "We set up a new department called Ipop, with branches like incubation, placement, outreach, and PR. Some employees of the institute are part of Ipop. As an initiative from the incubation branch, we signed this MoU with the Wench Film Festival. We will be providing the venue for the festival and will give students a different kind of exposure," said Samiran Datta, the vice-chancellor of SRFTI DTBU. "Our collaboration with SRFTI marks a bold step in rewriting the cinematic syllabus. Together, we're building India's first genre-forward academic alliance, one that doesn't just screen films but shapes futures. No one in India is truly investing in horror, sci-fi, and fantasy even though they're the most powerful genres globally. That's what makes this collaboration electric. It shows how progressive and artist-forward SRFTI is when it comes to nurturing its students," said Sapna Moti Bhavnani, founder and festival director of Wench Film Festival. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The most unconventional plan in the MoU is to host a cosplay competition on campus that will be judged by industry professionals. Students can design the official poster for the 2026 edition of the festival as well. They will be invited to submit genre-focused blog entries for the magazine published by the festival. If funds permit, SRFTI will start a 48-hour film-making challenge, with the winning film receiving a special mention and screening at the festival. A similar plan is in the pipeline to encourage pitching. A call for feature-length genre screenplays and series will open in early Jan 2026, with a maximum of 10 selected scripts invited to pitch at the 'Pitch It Till You Make It' market during the festival. The rights to the selected films will belong to the student and not Wench or SRFTI. If the initiative draws interest, plans have been chalked out for hosting a masterclass to explore the intersection of artificial intelligence and genre storytelling. Several masterclasses for screenplay writers and prosthetics with hands-on learning experience in special effects (SFX) makeup are also on the cards.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
SRFTI set to start Master's course this session, UG from next year
Kolkata: With SRFTI becoming a 'deemed university', queries about its graduation and post-graduation admissions have been pouring in. The institute announced that the post-graduation courses would begin from this academic session and those taking admission this year would get an MFA (Master in Fine Arts) degree with specialization in 12 courses. Modalities about the introduction of under-graduation courses are being finalized and it will take another year to start it. The institute, which received the 'deemed university' status under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956, is eligible to launch doctoral, research and innovative academic programmes. It will have to adhere to UGC norms, NEP 2020 guidelines, participate in NIRF rankings and integrate with Academic Bank of Credits. Currently, SRFTI has two wings—cinema and the electronic and digital media (EDM). While the cinema wing courses follow conventional film academia, EDM focuses on TV, OTT and new media. The EDM wing offers the only course in India that caters to both classical television and emerging OTT platforms. The postgraduate academic programmes in cinema has six specializations—producing for film & television, direction & screenplay writing, cinematography, sound recording & design and editing and animation cinema. The specializations offered in the EDM wing are sound for EDM, direction and producing for EDM, writing for EDM, editing for EDM, cinematography for EDM and EDM management. "The next batch that takes admission in any of these streams will be awarded an MFA degree. Earlier, students would get a diploma for these courses. We will complete all the formalities so that the MFA degree course can be launched this year itself for specialisation in all the 12 courses of the two wings," said Samiran Datta, SRFTI director. The institute has been receiving queries about under-graduate courses and a tentative date for the launch. "There are many modalities to be followed... We need to streamline certain things. We are expecting to start undergraduate degree courses from the next academic year," Datta said.
