Event: Virtual Film Screening
Film Title: Chak De! India

Date:  15th August, 2021

The Film and Theatre Club, School of Languages, KIIT (Deemed to be University) Bhubaneswar organized its second Virtual Film Screening on 15^th August 2021 to commemorate the country’s 75^th year of Independence and the recent success of Olympics 2021 (Tokyo) by Indian Athletes. The film selected for screening wasChak De! India (released in 2007) written by Jaideep Sahni and directed by Shimit Amin. In the wake of Covid-19 pandemic, when the entire world joined hands to fight against this deadly disease, a little recreation and entertainment did not harm anyone. It was a total boost for spirit, morale and intent.

With India bagging medals in different sports, it was the Men’s Hockey team who stole the spotlight with their lionhearted performance and adding glory to the nation by bringing in the twelfth medal in the Olympics history, it being the highest numbers of medals achieved by any country in a particular sport. As an athlete himself claimed, “Hamari choriya, choro se kam hai ke” (are our daughters any less capable than our sons), we believe that the daughters of the nation have equally made us proud in the Tokyo Olympics. To commemorate this victory, no better choice of a film could be proposed and screened. The screening was a success and was seamlessly managed by the Core Team of Film and Theatre Club, School of Languages.

Event: Virtual Film Screening
Film Title: Dead Poets Society

Date: 3^rd April, 2021 

 The Film and Theatre Club of School of Languages, KIIT Deemed to be University, organized its first Virtual Film Screening on 3rdApril 2021 – the film being Dead Poets Society (1989) written by Tom Schulman and directed by Peter Weir. With dialogues like “Carpe Diem. Even if it kills me”, the film aptly portrays the Romanticists life and thought process and goes on to give the messages of living life to the fullest, breaking away from the herd and finding one’s own voice before it’s too late.

The Panel Discussion was moderated by Ms. Sneha Jena, student of B.A. English (Hons). The participants made heartfelt remarks on the influence the characters and the philosophy of the movie had on them. The screening was organized and managed by the Core Team of Film and Theatre Club.

The virtual screening began with an address by Ms. Prerna Guha, student of MA in English, School of Languages, welcoming the faculties and participants. The vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Subhangi Rout, student of B.A in English (Hons). The screening was executed with seamless technical support by Mr. Sabyasachi Mishra, student of B.A. English (Hons) and Ms. Shatabdi Mishra, student of M. A. in English.

Event: Lecture
Title: Gender Bender Late Bollywood

Date: 16^th January, 2021

The Film & Theatre Club, School of Languages, KIIT Deemed to be University, made a resolute attempt to start a Lecture Series titled, “Breaking the Fourth Wall: Indian Cinema in Projecting Women Emancipation.” The tile of the Lecture series was finalized on 3^rd January, 2021. The first lecture series was to focus on how cinema, in this case, Indian Cinema, has become a medium to portray the concept of ‘gender’ which has been destroyed and reversed to represent the protagonists’ struggle and liberation as it shatters the shackles of patriarchy and the stereotypical imposed notions. The first lecture of this series was entitled as, “Gender Bender Late Bollywood,” on 5^th January, 2021. The flyer for the event was finalized on 10^th January, 2021 which pronounced the official development of the lecture.

The lecture had a total of 302 registrations from students, faculties and staffs of different universities, institutes, colleges and schools. The initiative became plausible under the aegis of Dr. Sahel Md Delabul Hossain who put in his keen sense of academic meets.The lecture entitled, “Gender Bender Late Bollywood,” was held on 16^th January, 2021. The event was graced by Dr. Amit Ranjan, Assistant Professor, NCERT, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India, New Delhi, as the resource person, who shed his light and views delving into the issues concerning the portrayal of women and LGBTQ community in cinema with a special focus on Bollywood. The progress, fault lines and future progress of Bollywood in the area of Gender Bender films, films that bend and break the gender stereotypes, were explored at a great length. The lecture got international attention as well. Prof. Stephanoes Stephanides, Former, Professor at Cyprus University, Cyprus also joined the session and took part in discussion in the Q & A session.

Feedback and Take Away

“The event has set an example, both in organization and conduct, of how webinars should be. It was a great experience and I am very fortunate to have been a part of it. It was very informative and thought-provoking. I would suggest that more webinars of such kind be conducted in the future.” – Ms. Vatsala Pandey 

“Many more should be done like this as It’s was quite interesting and helpful for our enhancement of thinking.” – Mr. Kumar Aryan 

“I suggest that if we conduct some sessions on film, cinema and their influence on society in cases of manner, education, fashion, and crime, would be better, because today’s society is somehow shaped by films and films stars…” – Mr. Mohammad Arman

“Continue to organise such insightful events and workshops to engage and develop the literary spectra. Thank you.” – Mr. Mahaprasad Rath

“It was very informative, Kindly organise these events at regular basis.” – Mr. Aniket Ranjan

Event: Webinar
Title: From Text to Visual Arts: Emergence of Film, Theatre and New Media

Date: 12^th December 2020

The idea for the holding of a webinar was proposed on 3^rd December 2020 by Dr. Sahel Md Delabul Hossain during an official meeting of the club with the Core Members.The title of the inaugural webinar “From Text to Visual Arts: Emergence of Film, Theatre and New Media” was finalized on 5^th December 2020. The first event kicked off on 12^th December 2020 successfully. The event was graced by Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, KIIT; Prof. Janyana Ranjan Mohanty, Registrar; Prof. S. Nanda, Head Research Chair and Professor of Eminence; and Dr. Biswajit Das, Dean School of Languages. Dr. Akaitab Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, Social Science and Languages, VIT, Dr. Soumya Mohan Ghosh, Assistant Professor, University of Burdwan, and Dr. Adil Hossain, prominent Journalist in Scroll.in (Ph. D. from Oxford University) were the resource persons for the webinar. The webinar exhibited the discussion about film and theatre’s role and importance in various aspects, in its scope and significance, delving into the basic premise of how literature and the realm of film, theatre and associated new media blend into one platform. The discussion contained the focal points of merging literature and visual arts into academics, and to acknowledge how literature has a major thrust on the ‘New Media’.

Social Media Coverage

During the promotion and social media impact, the flyer along with the registration link was posted on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The promotion was done by members of the club’s core committee, faculty coordinator, students of School of Languages from their personal profiles in various social media platforms.

• Facebook’s responses were astonishing, KIIT’s official Page on Facebook posted about this event which received 419 likes and 17 comments. Dr. Sahel Md Delabul Hossain, Faculty coordinator’s post had over 52 likes, 6 shares and 6 comments.
• On Twitter the promotion was also much anticipated, KIIT’s official page got 146 Re-tweets, 11 Quote tweets and 271 likes on the post till date. Student coordinators also tweeted and got a good response, hash-tag ‘#KIITFT_WEBINAR & #KIITSTAGESTOSCREEN_INAUGURAL’ were selected and used for promotion by the students.
• On Instagram the official page of Film & Theater Club, ‘Stages to Screen’ posted the flyer and got enormous support for the same, with stories posted by Faculty coordinator, student coordinators, and students of School of Languages from their personal Instagram accounts. This helped to vastly increase the response from not only KIIT university but also from other universities.

Participation

Around 168 participants were present and was provided with Certificates for Participation.

Feedback and Take Away

The responses on the feedback form were significantly appreciative and positive. Some of the reviews were,

“Keep hosting such informative as well as interactive webinars” – Sasmita Mohapatra.

“I am not really into that field but I did enjoy last day’s webinar. It was absolutely perfect for me. Thank you” – Ms. Shinjini Banerjee.

“It was an extremely enriching experience” – Ms. Yajnaseni Mukherjee.

“The resource persons were quite good and informative. Theorganizing system of the webinar was also appreciable” – Dr. Nishikanta Mishra.

“First of all, congratulations for successful completion of the event. Formation of the club is a great initiative. Definitely for students, it will be beneficial and it will help them for their advancement”- Ms. Smrutirekha Mohanty.

“It was fun in a very subtle and smooth manner and makes me proud of myself to be a part of KIIT University.” – Pratishtha Mohanty