Our Bureau
Wood Bridge, NJ
Indian Heritage & Cultural Association-NJ in association with The Consul General of India New York held an informative seminar on March 22nd 2025, entitled “The evolving Landscape of Indian Cinema: The Impact, Challenges and the future of Indian Cinema on the international stage.” The event was held at the Lake Chateau Banquet hall, Wood Bridge, NJ.
This one-of a-kind special event was arranged as pilot program to support the Government of India’s new initiatives to promote Indian Cinema in USA.
The seminar was opened by Dr. Ashok Chaudhary, President & Founder of a non-profit organization Indian Heritage & Cultural Association-NJ, by welcoming distinguished guests and speakers
The opening remarks were made by Archana Joglekar, well known film actor, director, producer and classical dancer who has featured in Marathi, Hindi, Odia and many other language films, TV serials and plays.
As a trained Kathak dancer, and film actor, Archana Jogleker talked about her journey from theater to Marathi films to directing Hindi TV serials from 1984. She mentioned about the various aspect of film production including friendly actors and co-actors on a film set, challenges in old days due to lack of technology. She concluded her talks after giving some pointers to increase the awareness of Indian Cinema in USA.
The key note speaker was none other than Padma Shree recipient Dr. Mohan Agashe, a renowned actor, producer and a psychiatrist by profession. Dr. Agashe not only received very prestigious award including Sangeet Natak Acadamy Award in 1996, Filmfare awards, Punya Bhushan award and very recently an honorary D. Litt degree from Pune Tilak Maha Vidyapeeth, Pune.
Dr. Agashe spoke about the journey of Indian Movies in USA from 1975, progress of Indian cinema in USA, representation of Indian movies in western Filmfair awards and the increasing popularity of Indian cinema as well as Indian actors in the USA.
During his presentation, he has shown some clips of Indian movies which are considered as a milestone in the journey of Indian Cinema in the USA. He also mentioned about the drastic changes in Indian cinema after digital era including Rise of YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hotstar expanded accessibility, evolution in storytelling and production quality, rise of streaming platform and its effect on audience as well as on the film distributors, global success of Indian Cinema in international market and representation of Indian Cinema at various international film festivals.
He touched base on the challenges and roadblocks for Indian films and producers as well. In conclusion, he gave his inputs on how to overcome some of the challenges such as Increased Bollywood-Hollywood collaborations, expansion of streaming services boosting international exposure, focus on high-quality storytelling and production to sustain global reach, etc.
Consul General Binaya Srikanta Pradhan shared the overall objective and new initiative of the Government of India in promoting the Indian Cinema in western world. He mentioned that the Consulate was celebrating Indian Cinema this year with two events in New York. He said, “Today’s event is more contextual in the sense that we are not watching a movie, because we get to see the movies in cinema hall here, or on OTT platform. So, today’s event is rather more relevant when we talk about the evolving landscape of Indian Cinema.”
He praised the Founder and president of Indian Heritage -NJ Dr. Ashok Chaudhary for an exceptional high-quality event. The IHCA-NJ organizes events such as Natya Darpan and Nritya Darpan.
He also talked about the experience and the knowledge of both speakers including Dr. Agashes’s vast experience in film industry as well as in human psychology. About 200 people attended this special seminar on promoting Indian Cinema in USA.
