A short video titled "Kshaya Rog: Nayee Davayen, Nayee Chunatiyan Nayee Ashayen (Tuberculosis: New Drugs, Challenges and Hopes)" produced by Dr Jayanti Dutta, a budding filmmaker has bagged the first prize in the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) short film competition-2013 on "Need of New Drugs for TB".
It may be noted that about 40 percent of the Indian population is infected with tuberculosis (TB) bacteria, the vast majority of whom have latent rather than active TB. With an aim of increasing an awareness on tuberculosis in the country, the CSIR through its OSDD initiative, recently organized short film competition on the tuberculosis research and challenges.
A national jury headed by veteran actor and director, Mr Amol Palekar screened 23 short listed videos in Kolkata on January 6-7, 2013 and has selected seven short videos for the prizes. Three short videos produced by Mr Srigireesh Rasiappan, Mr Pradeep Gopal and Mr Surya Venu with titles Need of New Drugs For TB : We Need This, Journey and The Need of New Drugs for TB: The Loss respectively bagged the second prize respectively. Two short videos "TB : The Global Burden" by Mr Sameer Javed Wani and "The Need : By The Need" by Mr Karman Khanna got the third prize, while "Need of New Drugs for TB" by Mr Matiur Rahman got special jury prize.
