(3 October 2005 4:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Star One has associated with the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune (FTII Pune) to telecast diploma films shot by the institute's graduate students in its afternoon band on Sundays. The channel kicked off the initiative on 4 September.

Star One will telecast 16 films in eight weeks' time - two films per week. Every film is of 22 minutes duration on an average. The films are being telecast between 2 pm and 4 pm.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, FTII Pune director Tripurari Saran offers, "We have our festival Lensight in which the graduate students present their diploma films. This year, we had Star One as a sponsor of the event. Now, as part of the deal, we have given one time telecast rights of the films to the channel."

Calling the initiative a 'selfless one', Star One programming head Ravi Menon expressed the hope that it would help the channel to introduce fresh talent to the television industry. "Today, television is on the lookout for creative brilliance in fields such as direction and editing. We hope that these kinds of associations would help fresh talent to get closer to the television industry," he said.