The panelists for the opening day session included film makers Ketan Mehta and Sudhir Mishra; RPG group entertainment division president and CEO Abhik Mitra; UTV Motion Pictures Sanjay Bhattacharji and eminent film director Shyam Benegal who moderated the entire session.

The session, supposed to start at 2 pm, was delayed by half an hour as film producer-directors J P Dutta and Boney Kapoor, who were part of the panel discussion, played truant. Apparently, the duo stayed away because of a bomb scare at the IIT campus, Powai following yesterday's tragic incident in Mumbai city where a bomb placed in a suburban train killed many innocent people.

However, the remaining panelists who shared the dais with Benegal dissected the issues facing the film industry and came up with solutions to stem the rot. Here are some key points that were raised in the session:

Film director Ketan Mehta of Holi, Maya Memsaab fame:

* The Indian film industry is biggest industry which saw the production and consumption of ideas and images.

* The major reason why the Hindi film industry finds itself in the state it does, can be attributed to the fact that films, as entertainment, have been considered as a luxury than a need.

* And this stance has led to the resultant apathy of the Indian government towards the film industry.

* Giving it the status of an industry is not enough which anyways, was possible only five years ago.

* In terms of technology, too, there is a huge gap between the Indian and the international market.

* The Hindi film industry has largely been an inward-looking industry with a closed economy adding to the cup of woes. The collapse of major studios and an unviable star system were some other problems.

* Filmmakers of today haven't managed to keep pace with the their audiences; have been unable to break through an audience which has largely transformed since the 80s. Film makers haven't been able to adapt to changing audience mindsets which has changed by leaps and bounds.

* The solutions include key aspects such as more efficiency and transparency in the system; giving up of the "frog in the well" mentality; and a big need to be able to talk to the world through the medium of films.

Film maker Sudhir Mishra

* There is no need to merely mimic Hollywood films or their "models" of working because our inherent strength lay in our Indian, traditional style of story-telling. We just can’t afford to lose our true ‘essence’ or style.

* We are no longer keeping the "film" at the "centre" (focal point) of it all but instead allowing it to be treated as an ancillary of the "carpenters' industry" - meaning the set designers, the garment industry and the costume designers amongst others - who tell you how to make a film.

* It is uncertain of whether things will actually look up with corporates entering the fray. Corporatisation will lead to "democratisation"

* The industry had become very "feudal" with few "filmmakers"! In fact, "famous film fathers and their famous sons" continue to carry on the tradition of filmmaking.

RPG group entertainment division president and CEO Abhik Mitra

* Among the various reasons and "driving factors" behind corporate companies entering the fray are trends such as a growing home entertainment market; need for improvement of content quality; growth in multiplexes; rationalisation in entertainment taxes.

* The film industry is like any other industry which can be successfully run using the same management rules.

Shyam Benegal rounded off the session by saying that the film industry is not like any other industry (as Mitra put it) as one still doesn’t know what runs and what doesn’t after so many years of filmmaking. Benegal also welcomed the thought of fresh talent coming in with the increasing number of corporate companies s into the Hindi film industry.