Vijayawada  :

ONCE the hub of Telugu film distribution, Vijayawada is soon to have a film school. Film director and advertising film maker A S Geeta Krishna’s International Film School is billed for inauguration in the last week of this month.

It will be the first film institute in Vijayawada. Geeta Krishna runs such schools in Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.

Speaking to mediapersons on Thursday, Geeta Krishna, a Nandi Award winnder for his directorial debut film Sankeerthana starring Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna way back in 1986, said it has been his dream to start a film school in Vijayawada.

“I was waiting for the right time and now with the administration shifting here, I felt this is the right time. This is my way of contributing to the development of Amaravati,” he said.

The film maker, who is known for his experimental style, says the Vijayawada centre will grow to be the flagship of his operations while the Visakhapatnam operation will offer crash courses in different aspects of film making.

Geeta Krishna has identified three or four locations for his institute. But at the outset it will function from a rented premises. “Once the state government provides us land, which we have requested, we will construct our own building, which will be stylish and iconic,” he said.

The film-maker is looking for some 1000 sq yards of land for the project, which will probably cost around `5 crore. The film school will offer different course modules of varying duration: 45 days, four months, six months and one year. “We are looking for students who are passionate about filmmaking and we will mould them into filmmakers and technicians. Already around 15 aspiring film makers have approached us for training and we are also conducting workshops at universities and colleges,” he said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Andhra Pradesh / by Express News Service / June 24th, 2016