Hindi
Manipuri film bags top award at Mumbai International Film Festival
MUMBAI: The Manipuri documentary film Phum Shang has won the Golden Conch Award for the Best Documentary Film (upto 60 minutes) at the 14th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Animation and Short Films, which concluded here today.
The Swiss film My Name is Salt and Indian entry Placebo shared the Gold Conch award for the Best Feature length Documentary Film.
Debanjan Nandy’s animation film Chhaya bagged the first prize in the Animation Category of International Competition. Mumbai filmmaker Devashish Makhija’s Agli Baar shared the Best Short Fiction Film honours with the UK entry Solo Finale by Ingo Putze.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the Best Debut Film of a Director went to Far From Home by Copenhagen, Denmark based film maker Nitesh Anjan.
The Festival organised by the Films Division every second year in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and the Indian Documentary Producers Association had commenced on 28 January.
The main awards were given away by Maharashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao in the presence of Maharashtra Culture Minister Vinod Shreedhar Tawde, filmmaker Ramesh Sippy, brand ambassador Jackie Shroff and Festival director Mukesh Sharma.
Speaking on the occasion, Rao said that he would like documentaries to transform themselves from those for a young India since the average age of the Indian today was 29, which was far below that of the United States or China.
He also wanted the Films Division to explore new talent from remote parts of the country and even economically weaker sections. Rao urged the Division to work with universities and schools in the state to ensure that films are made by students and also shown there.
“The documentary format is important as these films help to understand the complexities of the situation in all parts of the world,” he said.
He wanted Doordarshan to reserve a one-hour slot every week for documentary, short and animation films.
Rao also rooted for more women filmmakers to emerge and said MIFF should encourage innovation and new ideas.
Tawde said that documentaries provoked governments to action when they exposed ills in society and thereby played an important role. “MIFF should be held every year, and the state government can host it in the intervening year in case the Information and Broadcasting Ministry at the centre is not inclined to do so,” he added.
Sippy said that commercial cinema was glamorous but the real challenge lay in making documentary or short films. “This should be encouraged,” he said.
Shroff said he had come into the Festival as the brand ambassador but was leaving as a student who had learnt so much about documentaries and shorts. He also wanted the Festival to be made an annual affair. Answering a question by presenter Sameera Gujjar, he said that commercial films were dreams whereas the documentary were facts. Asked about national and international cinema, he said feelings were the same everywhere.
Biju Dhanapalan who had been a member of the national jury said that special awards should be instituted for investigative documentaries, and those which have archival value, apart from making a strong appeal for restoring the Silver Conch award for the second best film. He also wanted the event to made into an annual feature. He said the national jury saw 27 films.
Ashish Kulkarni, who headed the Animation and New Media Jury, said that films by professionals and students could not be clubbed together and there had to be separate awards for these. He also wanted more awards for new media category. He said that the jury saw 21 animation and 32 new media films and was impressed with the way the filmmakers combined various mediums.
A total of 385 documentaries, shorts and animation films were shown at the Festival from around 20 countries out of the 850 received.
The 52 minute documentary Phum Shang directed by Hao Bam Pabankumar who is an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute, Kolkata, critically examines the serious environmental problems faced at the Loktak lake. The largest fresh water lake in North East India characterised by its unique floating biomass, known as ‘Phumdi,’ is today considered a dying lake due to unchecked human activity. Pabankumar won the Golden Conch Award and a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs.
My Name is Salt directed by Mumbai born and Zurich based Farida Pacha is a film about the journey of thousands of families to the Rann of Kutch to extract whitest salt in the world. Chandigarh based film maker Abhay Kumar’s 96 minutes film Placebo explores the stress and pressure faced by medical students.
My Name Is Salt also won the Best Cinematographer award for Lutz Konermann, while Placebo, which won the Award for Best Editor, was also declared the Most Innovative Film in the competition section.
Hindi
GUEST COLUMN: Why film libraries & IPs are the new engines of growth
Unlocking value through catalogue strength and IP synergy
MUMBAI:In a media landscape defined by fragmentation, platform proliferation, and ever-evolving audience behavior, the economics of filmmaking are undergoing a fundamental shift. No longer confined to box office performance, a film’s true value is now measured across an extended lifecycle that spans digital platforms, syndication networks, and global markets. As content consumption becomes increasingly non-linear and algorithm-driven, film libraries and intellectual properties (IPs) are emerging as strategic assets, capable of delivering sustained, long-term returns. For Mohan Gopinath, head – bollywood business at Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd., this transformation signals a decisive move from hit-driven models to portfolio-led value creation. In this piece, Gopinath explores how legacy content, when intelligently repurposed and distributed, can unlock recurring revenue streams, why the interplay between catalogue and original IP is critical, and how media companies can build resilient, future-ready entertainment businesses.
For all these years, we thought that a film is successful if it performs well in theatres. There are opening weekend numbers, box office milestones, and distribution footprints that gave a good picture of how the movie has done commercially and also tell us about its cultural impact. However, there are multiple platforms today, always-on content ecosystem, which has caused a shift. Today, the theatrical performance is not the culmination of a film’s journey but merely the beginning of a much longer and more dynamic lifecycle.
Film libraries today are emerging as high-value, constantly evolving assets that deliver sustained returns well beyond initial release cycles. This becomes a point of great advantage for legacy content owners with diverse catalogues, to shape long-term business outcomes.
According to FICCI-EY, the media and entertainment industry of India achieved a valuation of Rs 2.78 trillion in 2025 which is expected to reach Rs 3.3 trillion by 2028 through a compound annual growth rate of approximately 7 per cent and digital media will bring in more than Rs 1 trillion to become the biggest sector which generates about 36 per cent of overall market revenues.
This shift is the expansion of distribution endpoints. We know how satellite television was once the primary secondary window but today, it coexists with YouTube, OTT platforms, Connected TV, and FAST channels. Each of these platforms caters to distinct audience demographics and consumption behaviors, helping content owners to obtain more value from the same asset across multiple formats.
For instance, films that had great reruns, now find continuous engagement across digital platforms. On YouTube, classic Hindi cinema continues to attract significant viewership, reaching audiences across generations and geographies with remarkable consistency. At Shemaroo Entertainment, this is reflected in our film library shaped over decades as part of a long association with Indian entertainment. From classics such as Amar Akbar Anthony to much-loved entertainers like Jab We Met, Welcome, Dhamaal, Phir Hera Pheri, Dhol, Golmaal, and Bhagam Bhag, many of these titles continue finding new audiences while retaining their place in popular memory. Their enduring appeal reflects how culturally resonant stories can continue creating value over time. Similarly, FAST channels have created curated, always-on environments where catalogue content can continue to thrive through star-led and genre-based programming.
This multi-platform approach has very well transformed films into long-tail IP assets which are capable of generating recurring revenue across advertising, subscription, and syndication models.
The evolution of audience behavior is equally important. Nowadays, it’s more important to find what’s more relative than what’s recent as viewers are more influenced by mood, memories, and algorithmic suggestions than by release schedules. Even if a movie was released decades ago, it can trend alongside a newly released movie, if surfaced in the right context. Thoughtful packaging, whether through festival-based playlists, actor-driven collections, or genre clusters, allows catalogue content to remain dynamic and continuously discoverable. Shemaroo Entertainment has built extensive film libraries over decades and its focus has mostly been on recontextualizing content for the consumption of newer environments. This process doesn’t just include digitization and restoration, but also re-packaging of films as per platforms.
Syndication itself has evolved into a key growth driver. In perspective, when looking at the domestic market, curated content packages continue to find strong demand across broadcast and digital platforms. Meanwhile, in the international market, especially in markets like Middle East, North America and Southeast Asia, the appetite for Indian content is opening up new monetization avenues. Here, the ability to package and position catalogue content effectively becomes as important as the content itself.
Importantly, the need to re-package catalogue content does not diminish the role of new content. In fact, originals and fresh IP are essential to sustaining the long-term value of a film library because they act as discovery engines that bring audiences into the ecosystem, while catalogue content drives depth, retention, and repeat engagement.
This interplay between the “new” and the “known” is what defines a robust content strategy today. While new films generate spikes in consumption, catalogue titles offer familiarity and comfort. These are factors that are increasingly valuable in an era of content abundance and decision fatigue. This is also shaping our strategy, drawing value from both a deep catalogue assets and a growing focus on original IPs to strengthen long-term audience engagement and build more predictable revenue streams.
There is growing recognition that long-term value in entertainment will be shaped not only by how intelligently existing content continues to live, travel and find relevance, but also by how consistently new stories are created to renew that ecosystem. In that sense, film libraries and original IP are not parallel bets, but reinforcing engines of growth. For media companies, the opportunity lies in making these two forces work together, because that is increasingly where more resilient and predictable businesses are being shaped.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
