Septuagenarian eminent broadcaster, the first executive producer and formerly director general of doordarshan Mr. Shailendra Shankar was the chief guest of the function organised to bid farewell to the electronic media trainees of the twenty-seventh batch of Asian Academy of Film & Television. In his thought provoking address Mr. Shanker called upon the outgoing trainees to try and build a modern, happy and prosperous society through their work. He advised them to do responsive and responsible television programming using their creatively. Earlier welcoming the distinguished guests, the director of the academy Prof. Sandeep Marwah mentioned that this institution has helped the nation avoid wasteful expenditure of at least Rs. 35 crores (8 million US $) bysystematically training nearly 1600 men and women over a period of seven years in a cost-effective manner. He further added that the dream of the founders of AAFT to make it a truly international institute has been realised by the sincerity, dedication and hardwork of its management and the faculty members. Prof. Sandeep Marwah reiterated his commitment to maintaining excellence in film and television training. The distinguished I.T.expert from the USA, Mr. Matthew Lewis who was the guest of honour of the function, said that currently television industry is the fastest growing industry in the world. He expressed his hope that with the availability of English knowing, properly trained and, technically competent professionals, foreign film and television producers will like to do their work in India. He assured the audience that Asian Academy of Film & Television is undoubtedly one of the fines film schools in the world. Colonel N. S. Behl, Chairman, Harmony Trust – a voluntary organisation set up to provide support to those affected by militancy – said that the acid test of the acquired knowledge is to put it to effective use. He advised the outgoing trainees to be ever modest, self-respecting and self-reliant. Colonel Behl cautioned them against mindlessly copying others work and asked them to be innovative and to develop a style and class of their own. Four outgoing trainees were awarded Master Diploma in Visual Communication at this function. Prof. Harsh Vardhan, Course Director, announced that the twenty eighth session of AAFT will commence from 3rd July 2000.
