Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry visits British Film Institute (BFI)

He visited the British Film Institute on Sunday to discuss collaboration plans and creation of a funding program to promote films, film certifications and film training in Pakistan. Fawad Chaudhary also shared with BFI officials regarding his plan to establish University of Media Communication, which will be solely directed towards promoting education regarding film and media.

He took the platform of BFI to invite Hollywood film makers to visit Pakistan’s northern areas and consider its aesthetic scenery for shooting of their movies. He also showed interest for exporting skilled film and media workers from British Film Industry for the purpose of training Pakistan’s film and media professionals. As it was shared several times by Fawad Chaudhay, about his plan to bring and make investments in film and media industry of Pakistan to generate revenues in stabilizing economy of Pakistan. Visiting BFI is a step further in fulfillment of his plan.

Furthermore, the minster added, “Pakistan had tremendous talent to develop its film industry and recently the foreign qualified youngsters had made several successful movies. He expressed the desire to establish a government owned kids channel as currently there was no channel for entertainment of kids in Pakistan”. The officials of BFI offered the minister their assistance in developing channel for kids in Pakistan.

He said that several foreign qualified Pakistani film makers have contributed a lot to the Pakistani film industry and revitalizing the field. There is an immense need of imparting courses and programmes related to mass communication and film making in Pakistan. Although departments of mass communication are present in all major public and private Universities of Pakistan but still there has to be done a lot in professional film making training.

The minister shared, although till 1960, Pakistan was among those countries where film production was one of the highest. But slowly it deteriorated and now there are very less media persons qualified in film making. Investment and funds are perquisites to reestablish film industry in Pakistan, but it only can progress through contribution of well educated media and film degree holders. Earlier, Fawad Choudhary also has met with French Minister of Broadcasting in October and discussed about scholarships of students in media courses for studying media courses in France.

The French minister had assured about his assistance and elaborated about availability of scholarships and fee waivers for Pakistani and International students in French Universities. Although, Pakistan has numerous number of entertainment and news channels but still our media industry lacks professional training and skills that are adopted by media industry around the world.

Without education in any field, whether that is engineering, medical, commerce or media, its progress is near to impossible. It must be appreciated that the current government has recognized this issue and are taking steps to train and educate media persons. Establishment of a university specifically to provide education on media courses of international standards will greatly enhance media and film industry of Pakistan in terms of skills and professionalism.