The Film and Theatre Club of School of Languages, KIIT Deemed to be University, Bhubaneswar, organised its first Inaugural Ceremony on a webinar titled ‘From Text to Visual Arts: Emergence of Film, Theatre and New Media’ on 12th December 2020.
The webinar discussed film and theatre’s role and its importance in various aspects and fields, opening up new opportunities, touching topics on how English Literature, camera, stage and the newer platforms of artistic, academic and professional expressions have owned a common arena. It also narrated how we can indulge in the creativity of people’s minds and bring performative arts into our studies and can acknowledge how literature has a major effect on the ‘New Media’.
The event was graced by Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, KIIT; Prof. Jnyana 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.
Dr Mukherjee explained how adaptation refers to both the product and process of textual exchange as well as involves a transition from one genre to another like novels to films. Examples include Byomkesh Bakshi, Sherlock Holmes, Game of Thrones from the book A Song of Ice and Fire. These adaptations which change medium and novels are influenced by films, video games, TV series, etc. is called novelism.
Dr Ghosh talked about how based on the personal opinion the author cannot influence the script since the script continues to evolve during the rehearsals and becomes lucrative. He mentioned that in both visual forms of art, film and theatre, women are portrayed as commodities, victims, mute spectators to the events that happen with them, or just a passive character supporting the male counterpart. As days go on to roll, we see women evolving and proclaiming the space.
The final technical session was carried out by Dr Hossain, who expressed how Social Media has democratised the whole field of journalism which earlier used to be a capital-intensive media. “The so-called Tik-Tok journalists are also doing outstanding work in verifying the whole set of fake news that is found over the internet. Ethical journalism has taken a back seat so what we need is a people-centric media and information cross-checking agency be it the A. I. (Artificial Intelligence) or websites”, he stated.
The Panel Discussion was chaired by Dr Sahel Md Delabul Hossain, Faculty Coordinator, Film and Theater Club, School of Languages. It was moderated by Ms Divyashree Das, student of 1st year B. A. The entire program was organised and managed by Ms Shatabdi Mishra, Ms Subhangi Rout, Ms Naazia Gular, the core management team, and the faculty members.
The webinar started with the address from Dr Sahel Md Delabul Hossain, Faculty Coordinator, Film and Theatre Club, School of Languages, welcoming the dignitaries and the resource persons. Words of wisdom and encouragement were shared by the dignitaries and Dr Biswajit Das, Dean School of Languages. The vote of thanks was proposed by Dr Sahel Md Delabul Hossain, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, School of Languages. The event ended with an aspiration to conduct more such events in future.