The public service
broadcasting trust
Rajiv
Mehrotra,
Managing Trustee
PSBT was born out of a felt need to
create a new, sensitive, empowering and independent voice in the non-print
media - a voice that was not driven by merely commercial imperatives, or of the
emerging monopolies and nexus between big business, politics and the media, or
of the imperatives of state funded and managed media. We do not seek
sensationalism or explicit confrontation, though that might bring in TRP¿s but
to provide quiet, considered insights and dare I add wisdom to focus on
contemporary predicaments and valuable elements of our heritage.
In the first phase we our supporting the production
of ¿independent¿ documentary films. We expect to move into other genres of
programming as well and are looking at a News Magazine for and by children, a
cutting edge consumer programme etc. We hope in time to build a coalition of
interest groups and key organizations that can actively works towards the
creation and sustenance of a genuinely broad, open, transparent, accessible and
democratic broadcasting culture embracing structures across the entire
broadcast spectrum in India.
We seek to build a community of programme makers, as
well as create a body of work that is able to empower audiences with images and
sounds that present a different, more complex panorama of life, work that
offers distinctive presentations of issues and situations that affect the
everyday life of the people of a complex society, coming to grips with
fundamental transformations, and which attempts a deeper level of reflection
and analysis. Even as we are open to formally and aesthetically innovative use
of the audio-visual media, we are also committed to programming that is accessible
and that resonates with lived experience.
We are delighted that the majority of filmmakers have
responded to PSBT¿s efforts in a spirit of partnership. Sadly many have to be
disappointed and some are even upset when we are unable to support their proposals.
PSBT is sensitive to this. We try and do our best. We circulate copies of all
proposals to all of our Trustees and to Prasar Bharati. Final selections are
based on their comments. Selecting some over others was a difficult choice as
there were far more very good proposals than we could accommodate. Often there
were a number of competing ones on similar themes. We were guided by our
assessment of the filmmaker¿s ability as it related to the proposed film and
the intellectual rigour of its articulation. This was not usually a reflection
on the filmmakers¿ abilities per se.
We had hoped that we could significantly impact the
standards of documentary film making in India by creating a supportive,
empowering context for the independent film maker. In response while some of
our films have been outstanding and the general standards certainly ¿better¿
than the average Indian documentary we feel we need a more engaged and
committed response from the entire documentary film making fraternity. We are
open at all times to suggestions and ideas about how we can build on this
opportunity to cultivate an audience for this genre on television - about
subjects, our procedures et all - so that we can produce better truly
outstanding work.
We encourage film makers to work with the newer less expensive digital
technologies so that they could explore more innovative treatments and
approaches to the documentary, afford more time on location and create truly
in-depth incisive films. Many still see this as a way of making the