27 foreign students produce five films at AISFM

The US's Northwestern University's School of Communication and Annapurna International School of Film and Media (AISFM) joined hands for a student and faculty exchange programme. As a first step towards building a relationship, a group of students from Northwestern spent a week at AISFM, Hyderabad for Indian cinema seminar. Excited over the first visit under the student and cultural exchange programme, 27 students and faculty from the Northwestern University's School of Communication campuses at Evanston (US) and Doha (Qatar) produced five films at AISFM at Annapurna Studio, owned by the family of veteran Telugu actor Akkineni Nageswara Rao. Barbara O'Keefe, dean, School of Communication, said they wanted to be in India as Indian cinema is a "completely global cinema". She believes there is great opportunity for them as they are the first American university to have any association with an Indian film school. She noted that the Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad is already affiliated to Kellogg Graduate School of Management of the Northwestern University. The engineering school of the university is also in talks with various technical institutes in India. Popular Telugu actor and AISFM president Akkineni Nagarjuna is excited over the association with one of the leading and oldest communication schools in the world. "The fact that they came all the way to Hyderabad is itself an achievement for us," said Nagarjuna, adding the visit was a first step to know each other.The actor said the student and faculty exchange programme would facilitate exchange of ideas. "They will learn how to put a creative idea on the screen," he said. Launched in 2011, AISFM is said to be the only private, non-profit film and media institute in India. With 22-acre campus, it is also claimed to be the largest film school in Asia.