Films are excellent medium to reach people: Krishna Murthy

Tirupati: To bring awareness among school students and young adults on environmental protection and enrich their knowledge, children’s eco film festival ‘Paryavaran’ began at Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) here on Wednesday. In the two-day event, about 25 documentaries and short films will be screened at varsity’s Indira Priyadarsini Auditorium.

Department of Communication and Journalism of SPMVV has been hosting the festival in association with National Green Corps (NGC), Department of Science and Technology, Government of AP, CMS Vatavaran–Environment and Wildlife International Film Festival and Forum, New Delhi. In this programme, the CMS Vatavaran will screen award winning films of various film festivals and documentaries will screen for the students and other participants. Not only screening of those films on environment but training will be provided in making short films.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the film festival, the Director of AP National Green Corps BVS Krishna Murthy has said that films are an excellent medium to reach people with the message of environment conservation. It will be important to create awareness among people regarding environment and issues like conserving energy.

Children are the best group to create this awareness, he stated. If every student plant a sapling today by the time they grown up they will become big trees and they can live amidst greenery and lively environment. He said that the students should make use of the two-day festival and watch a variety of films which are not in public domain and while enjoying the films they should also understand the message in each one of it.

The Coordinator of CMS Vatavaran Anand Anjali Jha has said that CMS Vatavaran was Asia’s largest environmental film festival and has created a strong network of film makers, academicians, environmentalists, students and others. Sabyasachi Bharati of CMS Vatavaran has explained about the films that will be screened for the two days.

The Coordinator of the film festival Prof BN Neelima of SPMVV has observed that there was no better medium than films to take messages about conservation to the public and the films to be screened for the two days will be of thought-provoking. The Curator of SV Zoological Park M Babitha also spoke on the occasion.

The Head of Department of Communication and Journalism Prof C Vani presented mementoes to the guests while District Science Coordinator P Neelakantam has proposed vote of thanks. More than 900 students of various schools in Tirupati attended the festival on the first day. They were greeted by a colourful display of pictures in photographic exhibition put up by Ornithologist Karthik Sai and B Balasubramanyam.

Also, Prof BN Neelima had put on exhibition on wildlife paintings. Over 15 films were screened on the first day like ‘The falcon amur’, ‘Revenge of the Tiger’, ‘Quenching Thirst’, ‘Path of a fish’ among others. A Telugu film titled ‘Daham’ was also screened that focuses on need to save water in our day-to-day life. Karthik Sai has presented the birds of Seshachalam forest to the audience in photographs and video which was cheered by the audience.