In the coming months, the Maharashtra chapter of the Federation of Film Societies of India (FFSI), is planning to open around 30 new campus film societies.

“We’ve formulated a new policy this year, wherein, besides setting up new film societies on college campuses across the state, we have also worked out a model for sustaining the growth of these campus film societies. This will be done qualitatively as well as quantitatively,” said Virendra Chitrav, secretary for FFSI’s western region.

They have already received confirmations from 10 new colleges. The new campus film societies will begin their activities from the next academic year. “As of now, the biggest challenge in front of us is maintaining these campus film societies. Emphasising on expansion of this film society movement in colleges, we will be assessing the response we get from students once the film societies are established, the rate of renewal of membership after a year of running of the film societies, and also the scope for more discussions after the film screenings. To be done phase-wise, our idea to introduce short-term film courses and film festivals on each of these campus film societies, which are run by the student,” said Chitrav.