Lucknow  :

The much-awaited All-India Kaifi Azmi Academy in UP might see the light of the day by March 2016, said Shabana Azmi on Saturday. She was responding to a question from the audience at the Lucknow Literature Carnival. She said she was hopeful of the assurance made to her by the UP chief minister. “Last time when I met the CM, he assured me that I shall have the key to the academy by March,” said Azmi. She also added that the CM felt bad Azmi had to make consistent efforts in the matter.

She said she wishes to make the academy “a sort of an adda for intellectual arguments, debates and discussions.” Praising the people of the state, she said that UP has a lot of talent which she pines to make a part of her academy. “The advantage of good language, pronunciation and finesse comes as a natural talent to people here,” she said.

The UP cabinet had cleared a proposal to provide financial assistance for setting up the All-India Kaifi Azmi Academy in July 2014. UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam had been appointed nodal construction agency for it.

‘Parallel cinema alive in new avatar’
Maintaining that parallel cinema still survives in India, Shabana Azmi said that it has only assumed a new avatar.

Quoting the example of Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar and others like Masaan and Kissa, Azmi said that filmmakers today work on current issues that interest and provoke them.

“Parallel cinema does not only mean making films on villages or on feudalism only. The latter has long been left behind. To go out of the formula and have a discourse around it can be called parallel cinema too,” said Azmi.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Lucknow / TNN / November 29th, 2015