Prasar Bharati – PSBT

Doordarshan – the national public broadcaster, PSBT’s primary partner, provided us grants and telecasted our films. PSBT was established in 2000 at the initiative of the Ford Foundation and Prasar Bharati. It was seen as an embryonic initiative to further the agendas of public service broadcasting in India through the production of independent documentary films. The aspiration for us was to demonstrate that it was possible to create powerful work in India that was independent of the imperatives of commercial broadcasting and that of the state. PSBT was also tasked with evolving systems, procedures and documentation that could be replicated by other initiatives. This, it was hoped, would spawn a movement. Integral to this was the effort to expand the constituency of independent filmmakers, primarily young and starting out talents through an active mentoring process. Over 500 filmmakers worked to create over 700 films with us. Many elements of the PSBT model have been replicated by others.