Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI) is the umbrella body of film-screening societies in India. FFSI is currently a member of the International Federation of

Film Society A film society is a membership-based Club (organization), club where people can watch Public and private screening, screenings of films which would otherwise not be shown in mainstream Movie theater, cinemas. In Spain, Ireland and Italy, they are kn ...

that has its organisation is an associate member of

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

History

FFSI was established on 13 December 1959 with its Registered and Central Offices in Calcutta (now Kolkata) by the coming together of a group of officials representing six existing film societies in the country, namely

Calcutta Film Society Calcutta Film Society was India’s second film society in the city of Kolkata (then Calcutta), West Bengal, India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, Delhi Film Society, Madras Film Society, Patna Film Society, Bombay Film Society and Roorkee Film Society. The moving spirit behind the concept was the eminent film director-writer-music composer-screenplay writer-graphic artist-type font designer-short story writer

Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...

who along with his colleagues from the Bengali language film industry came together to join hands to bring international cinema and Indian regional film efforts before a generation of young audiences who were until then provided only with commercial Indian cinema fare. The first executive committee of this federation comprised Satyajit Ray as president, three vice-presidents, namely Ms

Ammu Swaminathan Ammu Swaminathan or A. V. Ammakuti (22 April 1894 – 4 July 1978) was an Indian social worker and political activist during the Indian independence movement and a member of the Constituent Assembly of India. Early life Ammukutty Swaminadha ...

(Madras), Robert Hawkins (Bombay), S. Gopalan (Delhi), two joint secretaries, Ms

Vijaya Mulay Vijaya Mulay (16 May 1921 – 19 May 2019) was a documentary filmmaker, historian, film historian, writer, educationist and researcher. She was lovingly called Akka in film circles. Her close friendships with Satyajit Ray, Louis Malle, Mrinal S ...

(Delhi) and

Chidananda Dasgupta Chidananda Das Gupta () (20 November 1921 – 22 May 2011)—family name sometimes spelled 'Dashgupta' and ' Dasgupta'—was an Indian filmmaker, film critic, a film historian and one of the founders of Calcutta Film Society with Satyajit Ray i ...

(Calcutta),

Diptendu Pramanick Diptendu Pramanick (18 July 1910 –15 December 1989) was an Indian film personality from Calcutta. He was the founder secretary of the ''Eastern India Motion Pictures Association'' in Calcutta, India, a fraternity of film personnel which is a ...

and Abul Hasan as joint treasurers, and members R Anantharaman, K L Khandpur, Jag Mohan, A Rehman, A Roychowdhury and Ms. Rita Ray. Two former prime ministers of India, Mrs

Indira Gandhi Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi (Given name, ''née'' Nehru; 19 November 1917 – 31 October 1984) was an Indian politician and stateswoman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1966 to 1977 and again from 1980 un ...

and Mr

Inder Kumar Gujral Inder Kumar Gujral (4 December 1919 – 30 November 2012) was an Indian diplomat, politician, and anti-colonial independence activist, who served as prime minister of India from April 1997 to March 1998. Born in Punjab, he was influenced by ...

held office in FFSI during its formative years. Elsewhere, FFSI members included internationally and nationally acclaimed members of the Indian film industry and from the field of letters and included persons like

Mrinal Sen Mrinal Sen ( ; 14 May 1923 – 30 December 2018) was a Bengali film director and screenwriter known for his work primarily in Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali, and a few Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu language films. Regarded as on ...

Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...

, H K Sanyal, Subrata Mitra, Harisadhan Dasgupta, Nimai Ghosh,

Anil Chatterjee Anil Chatterjee (also Chattopadhyay, ; 25 October 1929 – 17 March 1996) was an Indian actor in the Bengali cinema during the early fifties through the mid-nineties and is mostly remembered as a character actor. He acted or performed in about ...

, Mrs Aruna Asif Ali,

Shyam Benegal Shyam Benegal (14 December 1934 – 23 December 2024) was an Indian film director, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker. Often regarded as the pioneer of parallel cinema, he is widely considered as one of the greatest filmmakers post 1970s. H ...

et al. At the end of year 2014, FFSI had 321 regular film societies on its membership rolls and about 100 campus film societies with a concentration of 118 film societies clustered within the south Indian state of Kerala. FFSI has focused its activities on the promotion of good cinema, worked to acquire feature and short films to feed its member units for screenings, and associate itself with both national and international organisations undertaking similar work. The creation of FFSI could be said to be the culmination of the development of a film society movement which first took seeds in Britain in the early 1920s. India received the idea as a colony of the Imperial administration when a member of the British movement reached Bombay to attempt create a similar organisation in 1937. The effort failed because England went to war and dragged its colonies along thereby diverting the native resources away from arts and culture. It sealed the fate of the Amateur Film Society opened in Bombay until the WWII came to a close. When peace returned to India, film activities were revived in all its main production centres and Satyajit Ray found himself working in the film unit of

Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...

on his outdoor drama The River. In 1947 the Calcutta Film Society was formed. The idea of film societies could now germinate in other cities, and new units were formed working independently from Delhi (1956), Bombay, Madras (1957), Roorkee, Patna (1958). In 1959, Agra and Faizabad also reported the formation of their own film clubs.

, working in the USIS Center in Delhi, and Satyajit Ray, already an international film celebrity, were both exposed to world cinema and being also colleagues known to each other, decided to take the next big step to bring the various film societies together under an umbrella organisation to create the Federation. The creation of the Federation helped the film clubs to now bargain with the national government to begin exchange of feature films under bilateral cultural exchanges. Soon a new traffic of films from the socialist and European countries started. Indian audiences began to learn of the existence of new alternate cinema other than the American and British English speaking film fare. Film historians began to call for corrections of the distortions of Imperial India. A banned Charles Chaplin was now free to send his films into India;

Sergei Eisenstein Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein; (11 February 1948) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter, film editor and film theorist. Considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, he was a pioneer in the theory and practice of montage. He is no ...

’s

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (, ), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent epic film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by Sergei Eisenstein, it presents a dramatization of the mutiny that occurred in 1905 ...

was allowed public screenings from 1955. On an average, FFSI members have been screening about 230 films annually drawn from about 65 nations. It holds about a dozen major film festivals for its members. A major annual international commitment is to manage the ‘Open Forum’ section of the International Film Festival of India held in Goa, and similar activities in Kolkata, and Trivandrum International Film Festivals.

Chapters, and central office bearers

Administratively, FFSI has divided its jurisdiction into four Regions of North, East, South and West, and one Sub-Region of Kerala with their Offices in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

and Trivandrum respectively. The central office is situated at C-7 Bharat Bhaban, 3 Chittaranjan Avenue, Kolkata 700072, India. The current president is Kiran V Shantaram and General Secretary is Amitava Ghosh.

Jury

Each year FFSI deputes at least half a dozen of its senior film experts to work as jury members in international film festivals. Its members are also regular members of various film selection committees for international film festivals in India.

Periodicals

FFSI brings out its monthly publication called FFSI Newsletter. Many of the film societies also bring out regular film newsletters featuring the working of their organisation and those of their sister units.

Book

'Indian Film Culture: Indian Cinema' is a book published recently by FFSI in association with the V. Shantaram Motion Picture Scientific Research and Cultural Foundation Mumbai, Celluloid Chapter Jamshedpur, and FFSI Keralam.

References

External links

Federation of Film Societies of India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Federation Of Film Societies Of India Culture of Kolkata Film organisations in India Organizations established in 1959 1959 establishments in West Bengal