In this lecture, Shri. Prakash Belawadi will speak and interact with students and general public about representation of Indian culture in mass media, unravel how world cinema perceives Indian culture and how powerful a medium cinema is to perpetuate global perceptions at large. He is also going to speak about the emerging discipline of Media semiotics - the science and art of how cinematic choreography articulates direct messages and indirect meanings - drawing from the interdisciplinary domains of linguistics, media studies and cultural diplomacy. Such a discourse will be important to the larger conversation on India's soft power strategies and how India could shape its global perceptions. This lecture is also part of the ongoing course on 'Cultural Diplomacy and India's Soft Power Strategies' at NIAS taught by Dr. Deepti Navaratna & Sharan Setty.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF SPEAKER:
Prakash Belawadi is an Indian theatre artist, film director, television and media personality, who's also a teacher, activist and a journalist. Belawadi has been invited to speak at many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad, including the Beyond Bollywood conference at the Gothenburg International Film Festival, 2010, the Performing Arts Market conference in Seoul, 2011, the 50th Theatertreffen – annual theatre festival meet at Berlin, 2013 and the seminar and exhibition, ‘Nature – A Good Idea’ at Trollhättan, Sweden in 2014. He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey.