Thaindian News

Panaji, Nov 29 (IANS) Indian women do not have multiple affairs, nor do they cry all the time, three-time Green Oscar winner Mike Pandey said Monday while making his case for creating a mandatory half an hour slot on private television channels dedicated to socially oriented short films and documentaries.

“The saas bahu serials on TV send wrong signals out to the society… Indian women do not cry all the time or have multiple affairs. I am glad the trend of these serials stopped following public opinion,” Pandey told reporters at a press conference in Panaji on the sidelines of the 41st International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

The ace wildlife filmmaker said it was time for private broadcasters to pay back to society.

“There are moves to make the private channels create a mandatory half-an-hour slot to screen documentary films. They make money from the society and they need to pay something back,” Pandey said.

“Sony and NDTV already have half-an-hour slots. We want the other channels to do the same. They need to show content which benefits the people of India,” he said, adding that as president of the Indian Documentary Producers Association (IDPA), he would be lobbying with the ministry for information and broadcasting for making the proposed time slot mandatory on private television channels.

Pandey further said that the IDPA would also lobby for a corporate social responsibility principle where for every commercial film produced, the producer would have to fund an independent documentary film with a social, educative message.