Lessons on road safety to be imparted through films

[1]

Come July and movie-goers would get to learn lessons on road safety before watching a flick in theatres. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) in association with International Road Federation’s (IRF) would release two short films on road safety in cinemas across the city before running any commercial advertisement. Namely Ehsaas and Afsos, the two movies deal with drunken driving and the Supreme Court’s judgment to quickly shift the accident victims to a hospital by anyone without any fear of police harassment.
However, we were surprised to know that leading theatres in the capital haven’t received any information on the same. “I am not aware of it. We haven’t received any such information from the IB ministry or from any other organisation,” clarifies Sanjeev Bijli, director of PVR India Ltd.
“Though the IB ministry hasn’t supplied us with any such reels as of yet, I am not surprised as it is not a lengthy exercise. It will take maximum 7 to 10 days for them to distribute reels to all the movie theatres, so I think we can still wait,” opines Deepak Talija, CEO of Fun Cinemas.
However, stating their take on the initiative, many activists feel that showing such awareness-driven movies to a theatre-audience won’t be of much help, as the attitude of movie-goers is different, and such an audience might not take the issue seriously. “Showing such movies to the theatre audience won’t help. How many of us actually switch off our mobile phones when we are asked to do so before a movie starts? Instead, young impressionable minds should be targeted, and such screening should be organised in schools,” opines Prince Singhal, founder of the NGO Campaign Against Drunken Driving (CADD). When asked whether this is a first-of-its-kind initiative, Singhal said that much has been done on these lines in the past. “Such concepts have been there for some time now. In fact, we made a one minute short film on drunken driving in 2009. Named Alcohol: The Fuel For Driving, we released the movie in 500 bars and restaurants and even screened it in theatres across many states. Moreover, it only works if it’s creatively made and has some fun element in it.”