Bhubaneswar: The Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, will conduct a week-long film appreciation course here as part of its nationwide programme to popularise film learning.

The course will provide an opportunity to the cine lovers of Odisha to understand cinema from one of the world's leading film schools.

"Odisha has a film industry that goes back over 75 years and is still a robust one. We have designed a special course for the workshop," said an institute official.

For over five decades, film appreciation had just been once-a-year course, conducted only in Pune.

"With a rich cinematic history and millions of cinema lovers, it is inevitable that we reach out to other parts of the country" he said.

"So, we have embarked on a mission to promote cinema literacy through film appreciation courses across the country, making film education accessible and affordable," he added.

In the past nine months, the institute has conducted film appreciation courses in Pune, Mumbai, Nagpur, Delhi, Jaipur, Guwahati, Srinagar (J&K), Haridwar and Srinagar (Uttarakhand).

The programme will be conducted with inputs from the National Film Archive of India, Pune, in association with the directorate of technical education and training.

Though the programme will be open to all, only 100 participants will be admitted on a first-come-first-served basis, and it will be held at the Museum of Tribal Arts and Crafts located near CRPF Square.

The course will be conducted by renowned film academic Pankaj Saxena, an FTII alumnus, who is a filmmaker and TV programmer based in New Delhi.

The course will be offered in association with the Biju Patnaik Film and TV Institute of Odisha in Cuttack.

"This course would be very useful for those willing to take up a career in cinema. The course would provide technicalities involved in filmmaking," said the state institute's principal Dilip Kumar Panda.

Earlier, a team from here had visited the prestigious Pune institute and also held detailed discussions about the course.