THE PASSIONATE FILMMAKERS OF TAMIL CINEMA – PART 1

Blue Ocean Film and Television Academy (BOFTA) was launched in March. Eight courses pertaining to film making and television were introduced with the faculty members being the biggest brains of Tamil Cinema and Small-screens  like director Mahendran, actor Nasser, director Bhagyaraj, Parthiban, B Lenin and many others.
 

Behindwoods got in touch with Mr G Dhananjayan, one of the directors of BOFTA, checking on the progress of the initiative and apparently, the response till now has been nothing short of overwhelming. “We launched 8 courses, out of which five courses have got tremendous response. The best responses are for Direction course led by Mr. Mahendran and Acting Course headed by Nasser sir, closely followed by Editing, Cinematography and screenplay writing Courses”, says Mr Dhananjayan
 

The initiative was started targeting 100 students for the first academic year. “We already have crossed 80. We are closing the admission by the end of May.”
 

But how were those 80 and odd students selected?
 

“The best thing about our admission process is that the interviews are done by the Masters themselves. For examples Mr Mahendran, Mr Bhagyaraj, Mr Nasser and Mr B Lenin  conduct the interviews for the direction, screenplay, acting and editing courses respectively. They are also completely involved in the curriculum preparation.”
 

On what basis do the Masters pick their students?
 

“Everyone has their parameters. For example, Nasser sir checks how responsible each applicant is. Unless he/she is prepared to give everything for the art, take it seriously as a career, he won’t consider him/her as his student. The students must know what they are signing up for and they must be willing to work for it”, Dhananjayan explains.
 

He adds, “In Fact, he made his own son, Abi Hassan wait along with 20 other students for an interview. In the end, Mr Nasser refused to interview his son and made the other faculty members do it. None of us knew that his son was waiting for an interview until later.
 

Actor Pandian’s son and few other close relatives of the industry people have joined the institute. “It’s nice to see that the industry believe in our initiative,” the director of BOFTA beams with confidence.
 

(To be continued…)