Hindi
NDFC, DFF should step up to promote Indian cinema overseas
PANAJI: Greater efforts are needed to promote Indian cinema overseas and within the country and this can only be done by people who understand cinema.
While Indian cinema is now visible almost all over the world, it still lacks proper marketing and that is the primary reason for its failure to win many accolades or awards overseas.
This was the consensus in the Open Forum on why Indian cinema lags behind.
There was also general consensus that people with greater literacy in cinema were needed to mann important offices like the Directorate of Film Festivals and the National Film Development Corporation which promotes Indian cinema overseas.
Renowned award-winning critic and author Gautam Kaul said it would not be correct to say that Indian cinema was not making inroads in the international market, but felt that there was lack of zeal on the part of the authorities including the National Film Development Corporation and the Directorate of Film Festivals to push films adequately.
He said stronger efforts were needed to invite selectors from foreign countries to India and this could only be done if those who understand cinema themselves went to foreign film festivals and talked to the foreign selectors to promote Indian cinema. In any case, he regretted that Cannes, Berlin, Montreal and Venice seemed to the only festivals that Indian authorities considered important and hundreds of other festivals were generally ignored, unless individual filmmakers made efforts to reach their films there.
Senior film journalist B B Nagpal said that the failure to curb piracy and the lack of proper promotion and marketing were two main reasons for Indian cinema not doing so well overseas. He said that Americans spent millions of dollars on marketing, but Indian filmmakers had failed to master the science of marketing and depended either on the government or private distributors.
He said large amounts were spent every year to take the concerned Ministers and film contingents to Cannes, but this had failed to attract the selectors from Cannes to come to India or buy Indian films.
He said many foreign delegates had complained that they were unable to get adequate information about the Indian Panorama films apart from the details printed in the catalogues, and no efforts were made to put them in touch with the makers of these films. Even those who visited the Film Bazaar said they did not get much help there.
He also said efforts were not made to reach out to non-traditional foreign markets and only countries with strong NRI populations were targeted, and it was left to those from other countries to contact India if they wanted films from here. He said in a world of give-and-take, selectors from India must go overseas to select foreign films if one expected selectors from there to come here.
Eminent film author Pradip Biswas said it was regrettable that the promotion of Indian cinema appeared to concentrate around Hindi cinema and named several filmmakers from regional cinema who had not only been making good films but also winning international accolades.
Biswas and Kaul said foreign selectors should also be facilitated to visit the film festivals being held in other parts of the country. Biswas was emphatic that the promotion of Indian cinema overseas should be wholesome.
U Radhakrishnan of the FFSI agreed that many regional films went unnoticed and said greater efforts were needed to bring them to the fore.
In a music industry that often rewards speed, spectacle, and instant recall, Navjot Ahuja’s journey feels refreshingly different. His story is not built on noise. It is built on patience, discipline, emotional honesty, and a quiet commitment to becoming better with every passing year. After 14 years of struggle, learning, performing, and writing, Navjot stands today as an artist whose success has not changed his centre. If anything, it has only made his purpose clearer.
For Navjot, music has never been about chasing fame alone. It has always been about expression. It is about writing more truthfully, singing more skillfully, understanding himself more deeply, and becoming a kinder human being in the process. That rare clarity is what gives his journey its beauty.
Where It All Began: A Writer Before a Singer
Indian singer and songwriter Navjot Ahuja’s musical journey began in the most familiar of places: school assemblies. But even then, what was growing inside him was not only the desire to sing. It was the need to write.
Long before he saw himself as a performer, he had already discovered the emotional release that writing offered him. For Navjot, words became the first true channel for feeling. Songwriting came before singing because writing was the only way he could let emotions flow through him fully. That inner pull shaped his artistic identity early on.
Like many young musicians, he sharpened his craft by creating renditions of popular songs.
Those experiments became his training ground. But the turning point came in 2012, when he wrote his first original song. That moment did not just mark the beginning of songwriting. It marked the beginning of self-definition.
A Calling He Did Not Chase, But Accepted
What makes the latest Indian singer-songwriter Navjot’s story especially compelling is the way he describes his relationship with music. He does not frame it as a career he aggressively pursued. In his own understanding, music was not something he chose. It was something that chose him.
There was a time when he imagined a very different future for himself. He wanted to become a successful engineer, like many young people shaped by ambition and conventional expectations. But life had a different script waiting for him. During his college years, around 2021, music entered his life professionally and began taking a firmer shape.
That shift was not driven by image-building or industry ambition. It came from acceptance. Navjot embraced the fact that music had claimed him in a way no other path could. That sense of surrender continues to define the artist he is today.
An Artist Guided by Instinct, Not Influence
Unlike many singers who speak openly about idols, icons, and musical role models, Navjot’s creative world is built differently. He does not believe his music comes from imitation or inherited influence. He listens inward.
He has never considered himself shaped by ideals in the traditional sense. In fact, he admits that he does not particularly enjoy listening to songs, especially his own. His decisions as a songwriter and singer come from instinct. He writes what feels right. He trusts what his inner voice tells him. He positions his music according to what he honestly believes in, not what trends demand.
That creative independence gives his work a distinct emotional sincerity. His songs do not feel calculated. They feel alive.
The Long Years of Invisible Struggle
Every artist carries a chapter of struggle, and Navjot’s was long, demanding, and deeply formative. One of the biggest challenges he faced was building continuity as the best new indian singer songwriter in an era where musical collaboration is increasingly fluid.
For emerging singers, especially those trying to build with a band, consistency can be difficult. Instrumentalists today have more opportunities than ever to freelance and perform with multiple artists. While that growth is positive and well deserved, it can make things harder for singers who are still trying to establish a steady team and sound around their work.
For Navjot, one of the most difficult phases came during 2021 and 2022, when he was doing club shows almost every day. It was a period of relentless performance, but not always personal fulfillment. He was largely singing covers because clubs were not open to original songs that audiences did not yet know.
For a new Indian singer and songwriter, that can be a painful compromise. To perform constantly and still not have the freedom to share your own voice requires not just resilience, but restraint.
“Khat” and the Grace of Staying Unchanged
After 14 years of effort, Navjot’s new love song Khat became a defining milestone. Professionally, he acknowledges that the song changed how society viewed him as a musician. It strengthened his place in the public eye and altered his standing in meaningful ways.
Yet personally, he remains unchanged.
That is perhaps the most striking part of his story. Navjot says his routine is still the same. His calm is still the same. His writing process is still the same. He does not want success or failure to interfere with the purity of his art. For him, emotional detachment from public outcomes is essential because the moment an artist becomes too attached to validation, the writing begins to shift.
His joy comes not from numbers, but from the attempt. If he has tried to improve his skill today, if he has written his heart out more honestly than before, then he is at peace.
Growth, Not Glory, Remains the Real Goal
Even now, Navjot is not consumed by labels such as singles artist, performer, or digital success story. His focus remains deeply personal. He wants to sing better. He wants to play instruments better. He wants to understand himself more. And he wants to become a kinder person.
That is what makes Navjot Ahuja’s journey so moving. It is not simply the story of a musician finding recognition. It is the story of an artist who continues to grow inward, even as the world begins to look outward at him. In an age obsessed with applause, Navjot reminds us that the most meaningful success often begins in silence, honesty, and the courage to remain true to oneself.
