YouTube, Ministry of External Affairs Commence Launch of Short-film Contest in India

Ministry of External Affairs, India has announced the second edition of its short-film contest “India is....a Visual Journey”. The new contest is especially targeted at bringing out the unique aspects of the country through the means of short films.

The second edition of the contest is expected to garner more attention and fan base compared to the earlier edition. The Ministry this time has established an exclusive tie-up with YouTube considered being the most popular video sharing website. YouTube is assigned with the task of hosting the entries for the contest. The new alliance was confirmed by both YouTube and Ministry over the weekend.

As part of the short-film contest, Ministry of External Affairs has also tied up with populist director Anurag Kashyap who will be directing five short-films as part of the contest and has also announced that winner would be given a chance to direct a sequence in the movie being released by him.

According to Riya Ganguly Das, MEA Joint Secretary and Head of Public Diplomacy Division, last year’s event attracted close to 250 entries across 42 countries. She is expecting the numbers to go up significantly this year. Akshay Tandon of Skarma, a leading communications agency is holding the mandate this year in promoting this contest on behalf of the Ministry. He stated that promotion was just limited to digital world last year.

Gautam Anand, YouTube Director for content partnerships in Asia Pacific Region while speaking on this alliance said that India is a key market for them since it is the third biggest globally in terms of views and revenue for YouTube. It is believed there are daily views of 10,000 full length feature films and 20,000 hours of television programming in YouTube from India.

As part of the contest, interested users will be able to upload five minutes of content by February 9, 2013 in YouTube for winning exciting prizes. The content should be uploaded under the categories “India is Unforgettable”, “India is Incredible” and “India is where you are.”