HELP IS FINALLY AT HAND FOR HEMA:
Information service officer is new NFDC MD

After naming yesteryear Dream Girl, Hema Malini as its first-ever woman chairperson, the Government of India has now appointed a senior Indian Information Service officer as managing director of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

The appointments committee of the cabinet has approved the appointment of Hema Malini and Deepankar Mukhopadhyay who until recently was functioning as officer on special duty in the information and broadcasting ministry. The committee has also approved the names of six part-time members of the NFDC board. They include filmmakers Kiran Shantaram, Vijaya Mehta, and veteran filmscribe Sudhir Nandgaonkar, who is presently director of the Mumbai International Film Festival.

The NFDC, which is the government’s body dealing in film trade, has been without a formal board and chairperson since wellknown Telugu filmmaker DVS Raju resigned in 1993. Ravi Gupta, the then managing director of the NFDC, had quit soon after and senior officials of the ministry of joint secretary-level have since then been functioning as chairman-cum-managing directors. Earlier, Dadasaheb Phalke awardee and renowned film director Hrishikesh Mukherjee and veteran filmmaker DVS Raju have also served as chairmen of the NFDC.

The corporation has seen a steady decline in revenues in the 90s through a fall in film exports, though an ongoing agreement with Doordarshan for marketing of feature films telecast on the national broadcaster has helped improve its financial position. Policy decisions for improving the functioning of the NFDC could not be taken in the absence of a board of directors.

Beginning his career in 1975, in the news service division of All India Radio, Mukhopadhyay, the newly-appointed MD of NFDC, also worked as AIR’s correspondent in Singapore. He also functioned for some time as deputy director in the Directorate of Film Festivals, and then in the Press Information Bureau, where he was also head of the Eastern regional network. Later, he was regional director in the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP). Mukhopadhyay has also written a book on filmmaker Mrinal Sen, apart from writing regularly on the media scene for different newspapers.
(Agencies)

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