Subhas Ghosal Foundation organizes second Memorial Lecture

The one-year-old Subhas Ghosal Foundation is organizing its second fund-raising Memorial Lecture at the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai, this evening. The lecture, which is being delivered by media personality and NDTV honcho Dr Prannoy Roy, will coincide with the release of two books on advertising - one titled ‘The Making of Advertising', the second, Epiphany II - ‘Advertising: Art & Science'.

Detailing the programme for the evening, Kaushik Roy, a member of the Foundation, and executive director, Mudra Communications, said, "For this evening's lecture, we have chosen someone who, though not necessarily an advertising professional, is a well-known name from the field of media and communication. We are sure we, as advertising people, will hear something new and insightful that could be of value to us." Dr Roy's lecture is titled ‘Communication - The State of our Art'. For the record, tickets for the evening's function are available at the office of Bombay Ad Club.

Speaking about the books being released, Roy says that the first (‘The Making of Advertising') consists of gleanings from Subhas Ghosal's speeches and works, while the second (the Epiphany) is a lecture delivered by Stephen King in the course of a training programme at HTA in 1992. "The Making of Advertising is being published by Macmillan, and has been put together by Syeda (Imam), who is also a member of the Foundation," he reveals. "The Foundation has also acquired the rights to release Mr King's lecture in the form of a booklet."

Constituted last year, the Foundation's stated mission is to promote the professional values that the late Subhas Ghosal stood by. "This Foundation has been created by a group of people who have either worked with Mr Ghosal, or are his friends and contemporaries - people who have had something to do with the gentleman," says Roy. "The reason for creating the Foundation was to honour a great advertising personality." The prime movers of the Foundation were Gerson DaCunha and K Kurien, and its members include Subhas Ghosal's son and filmmaker Sumantro Ghosal, Mani (SR) Ayer, Mike Khanna, Ram Ray, Titoo Ahluwalia, SL Rao and Syeda Imam, apart from Roy.

"The Foundation is at an early stage, and we are still working towards creating a corpus which would then be used for training and developmental programmes for this community," says Roy about the Foundation's objectives. One such initiative that is "in the final stages of planning" involves a long-term programme on advertising filmmaking meant for creative folk. "There is a need for training on making films, in terms of understanding the power of the medium," says Roy. "This programme is being spearheaded by a couple of filmmakers, including Sumantro."

Another initiative on the Foundation's anvil is an awards platform for language advertising. "All the existing advertising award ceremonies in India are geared to recognize creative communication, but all the work that is entered is judged on the same criteria," Roy points out. "And by default, the work in English or Hindi gets awarded. However, a lot of good work in the vernacular is word-oriented, and has the ability to move people. There is scope for recognizing this work." He adds that the Foundation hopes to flag-off these awards by the end of this year.

"We believe the Foundation can play a significant role in helping the industry, and we do look forward to support from the community," says Roy. "Already, people are making it easier for us to raise that corpus. For instance, for this evening's function, we have to support of two media entities, Rajasthan Patrika and Sambad Protidin. All this is very encouraging." © 2002 agencyfaqs!