On the 2nd october 2010, I was invited by the Ryan International Group of Institutions to be the Guest of Honor and inaugurate their New Multi camera set up Studio at Ryan International school, Chembur. Ryan group has been in the forefront as far as media education is concerned. Education through lens has been their motto and they were the first to open a TV studio inside the school to ensure that the children have hands on experience at the primary level itself. I was also impressed with the young students who have been trained (by ICEPLEX.TV a media initiative of Ryan Group) in TV news broadcast viz. reporting, scripting, anchoring, newscast, interviews, editing, handling of camera & other equipments. These trained students are called YJs or Young Jourknows. There are more then 200 such YJs all over India.
The other Film, TV & Media personalities who were invited by the Ryan International Group to do the honors were CEO Ryan Pinto, Johny Lever, Roop kumar Rathod, Kalpana Lazmi, Padmshri Kumar Ketkar, Kaanchan adhikari (Adhikari Bros), Ryan group Head Francis Joseph & Imtiyaaz along with Young Journalists.
I was told that the New Studio will also cover the schools of New Mumbai & provide Hands On training to the students, interested in broadcast media. Its the 2nd TV studio in Mumbai to be housed inside a school. The first of its kind is at Ryan International school Malad, Mumbai which has a mention in the Limca book of records.
All the guests & I was impressed with the idea of training students at the school level itself. It was the right time to make them understand the ethics of News production as the present day content which is being churned out is of abysmally low quality.
During the course of discussion Roop Kumar Rathod raised his concern regarding the weak Intellectual Property Right laws in India. Kalpana Lazmi , the director of Rudali felt, a time will come when the future generation will only remember the remix songs, sung by the present generations of singers .Original numbers of Mohammed Rafi , Lata Mangeshkar, Kishor kumar, Mukesh, Asha Bhosle & others will be forgotten. This is alarming & the State is a mute spectator
Normally when you are invited for an inauguration, the ribbon is cut by the chief guest. But if you have six Guest of Honors how will you save the day. Ryan Group had envisaged this problem and they were ready with the idea. A ribbon was shared among the VIPs and they were together asked to cut it into pieces. Later on we signed each piece individually in order to display the same as a memoir in the studio. I thought that was a smart move by the organizers .
All in all it was a day to remember, as the drive back home from Chembur to Juhu with Johny Lever was an experience. I was on the driving seat and Johny Bhai was sitting next to me. At every signal there was a traffic jam since it was day time and people could see Johny Lever clearly. Some body wanted to shake hands, some body for his autograph. He obliged them where ever it was possible.
After watching the quality of work produced by the YJs of ICEPLEX.TV, I am of the opinion, they are the future of Television News as they are aiming Beyond Breaking News.
