Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 6: Indian Cine and Television Artists Association (ICTAA) today criticized the Prasar Bharti for its new guidelines, which it alleged, are meant to cater only rich and influential producers.
While issuing a press statement, Mushtaq Kak, convener of Indian Cine and Television Artists Association, said that Doordarshan had been commissioning television programs to various producers for the last many years and due to this practice of commissioning of programs, hundreds of producers, production houses had emerged during the last two to three decades in different parts of the country.
“Thousands of artists, technicians, music directors, singers, production managers, cassette and hard disk suppliers and equipment rental service providers are associated with this television industry. This also includes students passed out from various film and television institutes every year. These students could apply as programme producers in the special categories, but under the new guidelines framed by Prasar Bharti Corporation of India for commissioning of programs, only big production houses who had produced hundreds of hours programs are eligible to apply and people with proven track records of creative and technical excellence had been thrown out of the game”, he alleged.
Kak further said that such strategy is meant to cater to the richest and influential producers only and creative skills had totally been ignored. Launching a scathing attack on Prasar Bharti, he said that new guidelines are frequently framed from time to time and then changed as per the whims and fantasies of Doordarshan authorities without giving any justification and logics.
“Under such arbitrary and unreasonable framework thousands of people with proven track record would be forced to starve and this is denial of their basic right to work”, said Kak, a Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee. He further said skilled industry of India must be saved from these hostile policies adopted by Prasar Bharti.