YouTube, MEA announce short-film contest 'India Is'

MUMBAI, INDIA: The Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India and YouTube on Thursday launched a global short film contest titled ‘India Is a ...visual Journey' with the aim to promote India and its diversity.

The five minute short film contest is open to users across world for the period of three months with February 9, 2013 as its last date of submitting entries. All the entries will be featured on the channel - www.youtube.com/indiais

''The Public Diplomacy Division is a concept driven by the Ministry of External Affairs for past many years and wherein public to public interactions happens using technology rather than government to government,'' said Riva Ganguly Das, Joint Secretary and Head of Public Diplomacy Division - MEA.

''The contest 'India Is' was launched last year and we decided to continue even this year and it was the first Web based campaign initiated by the Public Diplomacy Division of the MEA to connect and interact people from all over the world and make them think about," Das added.

Last year, over 250 video entries on India were submitted from 42 countries under a Global Video Challenge. Apart, Indian government have made over 350 documentary films and are available on YouTube in various foreign languages like Arabic, Indonesian and others.

''We are really happy to partner with India's Ministry of External Affairs to launch this exciting initiative to showcase and celebrate India's diversity on a global stage,'' said Nikesh Arora, Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer - Google Inc.

''YouTube is a powerful tool to express and share different opinions that can bring about a positive change in the society and as an organization we are committed to supporting all such initiatives,'' Arora added.

For this initiative, YouTube has partnered Bollywood's acclaimed filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and his directors will produce five short showcase films under three contest themes - ‘India is incredible,' ‘India is unforgettable' and ‘India is wherever you are.'

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt Ltd, will jointly produce these five films.