By Joseph John, TNN
RAIPUR: Amid reports that Doordarshan did not telecast the film on Dr B R Ambedkar in the last 14 years, the Public Broadcaster has now approached the Ministry of Social Justice to offer the movie to it for telecast on its national network.
“The film on Dr Ambedkar by Jabbar Patel was “not offered” to DD National Network till date and could not be telecast”, Prasar Bharti Deputy Director General ( Programme) B Venkata Rao said in response to a TOI report based on the reply of an RTI application filed by Rusen Kumar from Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.
“It is appropriate to state that DD follows a set of guidelines while telecasting films on its national channels. As per Hindi feature film guidelines, a film should be offered to Doordarshan along with a processing fee of Rs 15,000 and requisite documents. If the film proposal is found complete in all respects, a three member short-listing cum gradation committee under the chairmanship of Director general Doordarshan select the film to telecast on national network.
Rusen Kumar’s RTI question had yielded a reply from National Film Development Corporation (NFDCL) that neither DD’s national network nor regional channel, except DD Tamil Channel DD Podhigai, telecast film on the principal architect of India`s Constitution and visionary ever since the movie was released 14 years ago.
Directed by Dr Jabbar Patel, the movie was made in the year 1999-2000 and has been co-produced by Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India and Government of Maharashtra.
The movie, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, is available in eight different languages English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Punjabi, Bengali, Gujarati and Oriya. A copy of this movie is readily available with the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and its distribution rights are also with this ministry itself.
The role of Ambedkar was played by Malayalam actor Mammootty. He won the National Film award for best actor that year. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar was the national film awards for best feature film in English and Best art direction in 1999.
(Times of India, Apr 27, 2015)
