Dr Sandeep Marwah is a film producer, director, journalist, educator. He is the Founder and President of the Asian Academy of Film and Television and also the Founder of Marwah Studio. Dr Marwah was one of the eminent speakers at INDICOMMS 2021. Emphasizing the importance of innovative pedagogy, he suggested that to engage students, educationists should garner novel ideas and techniques to deliver. They must possess open minds to learn newfangled ways to involve themselves in the curriculum.
SMX Networks had organized a two-day Media, Entertainment, and Communication Summit named INDICOMMS 2021 in association with Adamas University (University partner), Innoserv Digital (Digital partner), ORAI Robotics (AI partner), ASMA and Asentrek Global (community partner). This mega summit continued for two days on the 4th and 5th March 2021, with many eminent speakers across the globe. This mega event aimed to examine the current scenario and identify new trends and best practices emerging in the media, communication and entertainment industries
Dr Marwah produced nearly 2300 short films and he is the recipient of numerous national and international awards. He has been heading more than 100 national and international media and social organizations. He also received the Life Time Achievement Award at Cannes 2019. In 2018, Marwah was honoured with Global Cultural Minister by Bhikhu Parekh and Dolar Popat in the British Parliament, House of Commons of the United Kingdom for his contribution to the media and entertainment industry worldwide. In July 2019, Marwah was honoured with “World Education Leader” at Education Leaders Forum during World Cultural Camp at Busan, South Korea. A biography on the life of Marwah, titled ‘A Walk In The Corridor of Eternity’, was written by Shreeya Katyal.
Dr Marwah focused on the extent to which mass communication through newspapers, television and radio will evolve in the classroom. Will teaching pedagogies change? He said, “Keeping students motivated by all means should be the first priority of every education centre. You have to keep looking for innovative ideas to deliver education. Everything will follow on both when the learner is ready to learn.” Dr Marwah said.
COVID-19 and Beyond
Dr Marwah said, “In March 2020, unexpected things happened and everyone was shocked; nobody could believe this could happen. People were just presuming, assuming, assessing and they were targeting something different and something different was happening. the lockdown was the first major bolt-on education. Luckily, when it came to AAFT, we were somehow absolutely prepared. Our research department was equipped to face the newer challenges. When the lockdown happened the first thing that we did was somehow assessed and declared holidays two days before lockdown. I do not know our sixth sense prevailed and we asked all our students to immediately leave for their homes. All students went back home we took attendance from home and everyone was safe.”
He also added how AAFT coped up with the situation. Within 2 days, they started an online system to ask the student to immediately check-in. The first few days, teachers were confused, management was confused, students were confused people do not know how to work with the technology but with time everything fell into place.
Dr Marwah continued, “We have emphasized practical learning in every segment of our institution. Now we have become habituated to use technology; it is a part of our education system now. We must keep students motivated by all means and keep looking at innovative ideas to take education forward. You have to find educative ideas and also fight with the circumstances”.
The author, Soumyajit Dutta is associated with the Adamas University Media School.