Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated country’s first National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) in Mumbai. Following the inauguration, while addressing a gathering of film industry people, PM Modi said a dialogue from the film Uri, based on the sugrical strike carried out by the Indian Army in 2016.
#WATCH: PM Modi asks “How’s the josh?” at the inauguration of National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai. The audience responds with “High Sir” pic.twitter.com/Da3y1xUiuP
— ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2019
“How’s the josh?”, asked Modi and the audience replied with an enthusiastic “High Sir”.
The museum has been constructed with a cost of over Rs 140 crore and is housed in two buildings – the new building and the Gulshan Mahal ( a 19th-century Victorian Gothic bungalow). The new Museum spreads over 12,000 sq m and is adjacent to the Gulshan Mahal.
Appreciating the fact that the Museum has 30 hour long footage on the Indian military including the participation of Indian soldiers in the First World War, Modi said that the Museum will be a medium for the younger generation to know and understand the journey of the Indian cinema.
Modi said that the cinema and the society have been reflections of each other. Cinema has been able to identify the changes taking place in the society much before they actually became visible and reflect it through films. Similarly the society also gets inspired from the cinema. “Movies these not only point out the problems but also offer the solutions”, said the PM appreciating the film industry.
Modi talked about the changes that have taken place in terms of how films used to be made in earlier times and how films are made now. Smartly taking a dig at the previous government, Modi said that like government schemes movies also used to take years earlier but now both the movies and the government schemes take less time. “Film Industry can play a great role in encouraging tourism in the country”, Modi said speaking about how tourism generates immense employment opportunities.
Prime Minister also addressed some issues like piracy, difficulty in obtaining the permission to shoot at a location etc. which were brought before him by the film fraternity. He termed piracy as an insult to the hard work and competence of artists. He said that government is planning to amend the Cinematography Act 1952 to make piracy a punishable offence and provide for a stricter punishment.
Regarding the problem relating to obtaining the permission for shooting, Modi assured that on the lines of ease of doing business, the government has started working on creating a single-window system to make the process of obtaining permission for shooting easier as a step towards ‘ease of filming’.
Modi suggested a full fledged university dedicated for the study of communication and entertainment. He urged the people of the film industry come forward for setting up such a university and assured full cooperation from the government. He also expressed the wish to have an International Entertainment Summit on the lines of Davos World Economic Summit which is not restricted to the artistic aspect of industry but covers its business aspect as well.
