Film made by School of Communication students bags first prize

A short film Baanuli Kendra made by two students of the School of Communication, a constituent of Manipal University, bagged the first place in the Community Radio Video Challenge, 2016, a national-level short film competition organised by Commonwealth Educational Media Center for Asia and UNESCO.

According to a press release issued here, the short film of two minutes and 58 seconds duration was written and directed by the students Sourabh Acharya and Kartik Shetty. The team won a cash prize of Rs. 30,000. The film, shot in two days, focused on the helpful role of community radio.

The film tells the story of a fisherwoman drying fish near the beach and learns on the community radio that a storm is coming. She is concerned as her husband and other fishermen have gone fishing in a boat to catch fish. She and other fisherwomen rush to the harbour. Meanwhile, the fishermen too hear the news of the storm and return to the harbour, and everyone is relieved.

The two main actors in the film are K. Shyama Bhat, Head of Radio Manipal, a community radio, who also worked at the All India Radio for 25 years, and Shobha Alevoor, a homemaker. The 10 other actors are fishermen and fisherwomen of Malpe.

It was a challenge to shoot all 12 persons who did not have an acting background. “It would not have been possible to shoot this short film without the support given by the faculty members of the SOC. We did not think we would win as the competition was being held at national-level, said Mr. Acharya, who graduated from SOC in 2016.

The competition received 40 entries from across the country. The team from Manipal won a cash prize of Rs. 30,000 for their short film.

To know the complete list of winners, click here: CEMCA-UNESCO Community Radio Video Challenge

Source: The Hindu