Category: News

In a rare and unprecedented gesture Oxford Business College of the UK honored Sandeep Marwah by the award of their prestigious Masters of Business Administration degree. A special convocation was held last week in the world renowned city of learning Oxford –to honor him in person. Conferring the degree Stanley Hunter of the Oxford Business College complimented Sandeep Marwah for taking large step in atisfying a central human interest of empowerment to profess a vocation in life. Asian School of Media Studies and Asian Academy of film and television set up by Sandeep Marwah have indeed become favored destinations for the aspirants of a career in the media industries, he added. Speaking on this occasion Sandeep Marwah remarked than an entirely new and sound Indo-British relationship based on mutual respect is fast emerging .A cultural show was also staged by the students to mark this occasion.

53rd batch students of various specialized short term training courses stepped into the world of glamour and media after a glittering function marking their convocation at the world renowned Asian Academy of Film & TV, recently. Senior bureaucrat, former CCEO, NOIDA authority and Commissioner (Merrut Division), Deo Datta was the honourable chief guest of the function, who awarded the certificates and the diplomas to the successful students. Speaking on the occasion, Deo Datta complimented Prof Sandeep Marwah, the director of the institute for his sincere efforts, honesty and dedication towards bringing his academy in the world’s top ten best institutes of its kind in a very short span of time.Referring to a continuing special training program for 31 delegates from the Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Media Sciences in Pakistan currently on at AAFT, Deo Datta described this initiative as both historic and as another milestone in the growth of Indo Pak relations, all because of the dedicated efforts of Prof Marwah and his academy. He also noted with great satisfaction how Prof Marwah had been instrumental in establishing an entire film city in Noida through his passionate zeal and literally a single handed relentless effort on his part.Qazi Asif Rashid, the other guest of honour representing Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Institute of Media Sciences in Pakistan applauded the hospitality of the team members at AAFT & ASMS and hoped the Indo Pak relations will strengthen further in the future.

A gathering of more than ten thousand people turned up at the special charity show christened, Music with Meaning at St Columbus School on Dec 16 organized by the All People’s Development & Welfare Society( APDWS) in Delhi. The charity show was organized with a view to raise donations for APDWS’s proposed Mother Teresa Institute of Health Sciences(MTIHS), committed to offering free medicare to the gas victims and the poor people in Bhopal. The proposed facility will include a full fledged Hospital with a Research Center, Referral Health Service Network, Community Medicine, Ayurveda and other Alternative Systems of Medicine besides also imparting medical education to people desirous of becoming medical practitioners. The event amongst others was attended by P R Kyundiah, the Union Minister for Tribal Affairs, Dr Senastian Paul, MP(Lok Sabha), S K Roongta, CMD(SAIL), Jigi Thompson, Principal Secretary(NORKA:GOI), Prof Sandeep Marwah,Director( Asian Academy of Film and Television and Asian School of Media Studies), Mathew Samuel, Chairman(Genesis Media Combines), Dr Fr Babu Joseph, Spokesperson(CBCI & Chairman APDWS) and the general convener and Advocate(Supreme Court), Deepak Prakash.The highlight of the event was a glittering performance from the winners’troupe of he famous Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, TV serial that included Debojit, Himani, Vishwas Rai, Sanchali Chatterji, dancer groups from scorpion, Mumbai and St Columbus, Delhi all winning a thunderous applause from the large audience.

Director of the world renowned Asian Academy of Film and Television and its affiliate Asian School of Media Studies, Prof Sandeep Marwah has been appointed as the Chairman of the Media and Entertainment Committee of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce. It may be noted here that Prof Marwah is already working as the Chairman of the Media and Entertainment Committee of the century old PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) for the last two years. Both the Regional President, Mr Vinod Madhok and Regional Director, Mr Atul Vyas of the Indo American Chamber of Commerce have hailed the appointment of Prof Sandeep Marwah, who brings with him a rich versatile exposure of over two decades in the field of entertainment, art, culture and media education.

Continuing their respective search for synergy between centers of excellence for spread of education the world over, the tie up between the Oxford business college and the Asian School of Media Studies, (the fastest growing venture of the world renowned, Asian Academy of Film and Television) into the exciting field of media management, from Film City, Noida has gained further momentum.During a recent interactive session conducted specially for the aspirants of Media Management studies, Prof Anthony Considine representing the Oxford Business College(UK) was inducted as a Life Time member of the prestigious International Film & TV Research Center of AAFT/ASMS.The life membership was offered to Prof Anthony by ASMS Course Director Prof Harsh Vardhan and Prof T S Bedi jointly, on behalf of its President, Prof Sandeep Marwah in UAE on a Special Invitation from the Media City.If Oxford as a name invokes awe in the minds of aspiring students the world over, ASMS and AAFT have outgrown any other contemporary institute in the field of film, TV and media studies the world over in an unbelievably shortest span of time. No wonder, the two in tandem should soon be offering a dream platform for higher and most advanced education, for many international students in the very near future.Amongst its stream of various courses, the Oxford business college has agreed to offer 12/15/18 months MBA customized to strengths and potential of qualifying applicants(University of Sunderland MBA, a 2-year BA in Business Management (University of Sunderland) besides its 3-6 month pre-MBA programmes that are ideal for those wishing to combine intensive English, whilst developing their business skills and knowledge. While history is in the process of being re written beyond doubt, by the combined might of Oxford and ASMS, the discerning and the highly selective can look forward to a wonderful journey in the field of higher education in Media Management, especially from the Asian sub continent, where AAFT and ASMS in India have already established the strongest launch pad for global development for all media and general managers of the future.

Asian School of Media Management affiliated to the world renowned Asian Academy of Film and Television situated in Film City in Noida recently organized a two day Seminar in collaboration with the century old PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the latter’s premises in the capital on various issues and concerns confronting the Indian broadcasters and cable networ operators across the nation.Nearly a hundred delegates representing each of the zones of the country besides all the students of First and Second year streams of MBA at ASMS attended the proceedings. The seminar was the brain child of Prof Sandeep Marwah, Chairman of the Media and Entertainment Committee of the PHDCCI, who has been trying his best to synthesise solutions on most of the burning issues confronting the Film, Television and the Media industry in general in India of late. The Indian broadcasting world, a key sponsor to the event was represented by Dr A K Rastogi.
Expert speakers in the seminar included Dr A K Rastogi, who also conducted the proceedings besides eminent professionals from the field like Prof V C Khare, Mr Subash Grover, acknowledged as Technical Experts and Industry observers respectively and renowned management speaker Prof T S Bedi and former Engineer in chief Doordarshan and Course Director(ASMS) Prof Harshwardhan. The chief Guest of the function was Prof Mosharraf Hussain from Bangla Desh, who is a renowned HR Consultant, CEO of a number of Consulting Organizations and a Professor with a number of management institutes there. While Prof Bedi called for corporatization of the broadcasting and cable network association, Prof Khare and Subash Grover allayed fears on a variety of issues raised by participants from various States.The concluding session was addressed by Prof Sandeep Marwah amidst universal support to him on various issues evolved by consensus and supported by a signature campaign involving all the delegates for presentation to the Government of India through the PHDCCI.

With a view to create awareness amongst the masses for the ensuing Commonwealth Games being hosted in Delhi in 2010, the PHDCCI, one of the oldest and leading chambers of commerce and industry in India, recently organized an Open Cycle Race in the capital. The cynosure of attraction at the open cycle race remained three times national award winner and renowned cine star Anil Kapoor, Prof Sandeep Marwah, Director of the Asian Academy of Films & Television and President Asian School of Media Studies besides the savvy Delhi chief minister Smt Sheela Dixit, who flagged off the event from the National Stadium as its chief guest.Speaking on the occasion Smt Dixit said that besides creating awareness for the coming commonwealth games the race is also a first step forward towards India’s commitment for hosting the International Olympics in 2016. Prof Sandeep Marwah, who is also the chairman of the National Entertainment Committee of the PHDCCI thanked the PHDCCI President Smt Sushma Berlia for her relentless support to the great cause. The first three winners in each category of male and female participants later walked off with their cool prizes of Rs One lac, Rs Forty Thousand and Rs Twenty Thousand each.

AAFT Alumni Haobam Paban Kumar was born in Imphal, Manipur, India. He studied filmmaking at Asian Academy of Film and Television. He has directed several television programmes and the documentary AFSPA, 1958 (06). A Cry in the Dark (06), his most recent film, won a FIPRESCI prize at this year’s Mumbai International Film Festival. Film Title: A Cry in the Dark Producer: Haobam Paban Kumar Screenplay: Haobam Paban Kumar Cinematographer: Saikhom Ratan Editor: Sankha
It was a standoff that barely made the world news. Two summers ago, in India’s eastern state of Manipur, a young woman was arrested, then reportedly raped and killed in police custody. She was a village girl of no particular prominence ? but the popular movement that rose up in the wake of Thangiam Manorama’s death shook the foundations of a government. Filmmaker Haobam Paban Kumar was in Manipur at the time and found himself in the thick of the conflict. A Cry in the Dark captures showdown after showdown between unarmed protesters ? often led by women’s groups ? and the officers of the Assam Rifles. In plain view, police beat protesters with staffs. They fire tear-gas canisters into crowds and bullets mere inches from protesters’ heads. In one especially humiliating clash, they force young men to beat each other, then make them roll somersaults down a muddy road. Through it all, Kumar’s camera keeps rolling. The film captures an extraordinary succession of abuses of authority and culminates in a horrifying, desperate act ? but it is clearly powerless to stop what it sees. In one scene a journalist is brazenly beaten by police, his press badge splattered with his own blood. (So much for media scrutiny.) Kumar brings a quiet, resolute force to putting his argument forward; he lets no viewer off the hook, offering an object lesson in documentary ethics. But this film’s most resonant image might be the protesters on yet another march after yet another police attack. Their banner reads simply, “Arrest Us. Beat Us More.”

Yamini Sharma, whose front page close up by the Times of India’s Chandigarh edition while protesting against ban of use of mobiles in colleges had recently got her immediate attention of Bollywood czar Satish Kaushik and who had accepted the producer director’s offer of a lead role in one of his forthcoming movies recently visited the Marwah Film & Televisio Studios in the film city in Noida. Yamini, who said that she had decided to jump into film dom after a long and a careful thought and that she had no objections to doing any bold scenes, if the script so demands had come for a special audition and screen test at the Marwah Studios and AAFT; its integrated world class institute in film and television training. The buzz going around Marwah studios after the tests was that Yamini’s audition and shots had gone great guns with none other than Satish Kaushik and Sandeep Marwah being present personally for the same for most of the time. A highly satisfied Satish Kaushik later was quick to observe that his first impressions of having found a face of both Karrena Kapoor and a Divya Mittal together appeared to be coming true. Yamini appreciated and thanked Prof Marwah for the great platform his institute and studios provide for auditions for upcoming and aspiring artistes like her.

Endorsing the WE CARE film festival being organized in the coming December by two Delhi based NGO’s ? Tamana Welfare Society and Brotherhood ? the well known media educator and researcher Prof. Sandeep Marwah said that film and television are indeed powerful mediums of mass communication. It is thoughtful on the part of the organizers of this film festival to support the cause of the mentally and physically handicapped persons through films on disability issues, he added Prof. Sandeep Marwah offered to make available the facilities at Marwah Studios to the film professionals willing to support this cause through their work.
The president of Tamana Welfare Society Dr. Shyama Chona suggested that well made films on the subject may be screened at the schools and colleges to sensitize the youth about this issue. The director of WE CARE film festival Satish Kapoor said that the masses must be made aware about their duty to lend all possible support to the handicapped persons. The proposed film festival is a modest effort in this direction, he added. Prof. MM Alex, renowned film-actor Atul Kumar and Babli Singh of Shemaroo group were also present at the curtain raiser for the film festival being organized.