27 award winning filmmakers petition to save Indie cinema

27 stalwarts from the industry have come together save Independent Cinema.

Mumbai: In a first of it’s kind campaign, 27 national award winning filmmakers and stalwarts from the industry have come together to ask the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to protect and save Independent Cinema.

The petition has jointly been filed by National Award Winner and Oscar Nominees Ashvin Kumar, Ashutosh Gowariker ; National Award winning film makers Anant Mahadevan, Aparna Sen, Buddhadev Das Gupta, Girish Kasaravalli, Goutam Ghosh, Jahnu Barua, Janaki Viswanathan, Nila Madav Panda, Onir, Rituparno Ghosh, Sachin Kundalkar, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Umesh Kulkarni, Vinay Shukla, Vishal Bharadwaj film makers Aamir Bashir , Homi Adajania, Kaushik Mukherjee(Q), Krishna D.K., Subhash Kapoor, Samar Khan, Sudish Kamath, Vinta Nanda, Vipin Vijay and Oscar Award and National Award winning Sound Engineer Resul Pookutty as a plea to save indie cinema in India. The petition on Change.org asks Ambika Soni, Minister of Information and broadcasting to take steps to protect and promote Independent Cinema (also known as Indie cinema) in India. The petition raises the concerns shared by independent filmmakers across India about the exhibition & broadcasting of their films. Onir Dhar, National award winning filmmaker known for films like My Brother…Nikhil , Bas Ek Pal and I Am who started the petition said, “We are celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema, but there are still many among us, in all regional film industries of Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and others, who are facing a lot of problems in terms of how to show our films.” "For the first time in India film makers across the country representing 9 languages have come together to demand for nurturing Indie cinema. What has really overwhelmed me is the ever increasing no of supporters, now nearly 5000 that identify with our need. “I am touched by their love and support to our work. I am hopeful the that I&B ministry will take positive productive action towards making a difference, ”Onir added. Nandita Das, Milind Soman, Salim Merchant, Sanjay Suri, Ranveer Shorey, Purab Kohli , Rohini Iyer, Sooni Taraporewala, Namrata Joshi, Anna M Vetticad, Samar Khan are amongst the 5200 petition signers. “The response that these 27 award award winning filmmakers have gathered is amazing; in just 8 days thousands across India have supported them. The numbers are likely to grow. ” said Tamseel Hussain, Change.org Campaigner. ANI