AIR to launch Akashvani Maitree for Bangladesh & Bengali Diaspora

All India Radio (AIR) is all set to launch Akashvani Maitree, an exclusive service for Bangladesh and Bengali Diaspora, on August 23, 2016. President Pranab Mukherjee will be launching the channel, which will act as a bridge of amity between the two countries.

India and Bangladesh have also agreed to promote capacity building and training workshops for media persons, exchange programme for officers associated with Information and Broadcasting and exchange of programmes between Doordarshan and its counterpart in Bangladesh.

During the discussions, both India and Bangladesh agreed to cooperate on a range of issues. M Venkaiah Naidu, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, and Hasanul Haq Inu, Bangladesh’s Minister of Information, agreed to collaborate to jointly produce a documentary on the 1971 War of Independence of Bangladesh. In this context, Naidu stated that the archival material available with Films Division, DD and other media units would be optimally utilised. This documentary proposed to be produced would commemorate the 50th year of Bangladesh Independence in 2021. Naidu also agreed to the proposal of Hasanul Haq Inu to facilitate the production of the mega movie by Bangladesh to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2020.

Both sides also agreed to jointly workout a proposal for a joint AV co-production agreement between the two countries. It was also agreed to organise Film Festival of India in Bangladesh and a Bangladesh Film Festival in India. The Bangladesh Minister also agreed to the request of Naidu to provide the celluloid version of the film ‘Devdas’ directed by Pramatesh Barua, the Bengali version produced in 1935. Bangladesh had earlier provided the DVD version of the film to NFAI.

Regarding the facilitation of Free Film Trade between the two countries, Naidu mentioned that Bangladesh could consider to relax the legal provisions which restricted the number of Indian films in that country. The easing of restrictions would have a positive impact on the local film industry. The Minister also offered to train the young film makers and entrepreneurs from Bangladesh at the Indian Film and Training Institutes. He also mentioned that collaborative measures would be initiated between NFDC and Bangladesh Film Development Corporation to promote joint production of films and also between NFAI and Bangladesh Film Archives for digitisation and archiving.