Edited By: Aditi Jain
Jashn-e-Jazbaa, the annual clubs and societies’ showcase at Ashoka, saw the participation of twenty-seven clubs and societies on campus this year. The showcase, organised by the Office of Student Life and the Cultural Ministry, took place on the 19th, 20th and 21st of November. The showcase of work was through installations, stalls, and performances amongst other innovative events and activities. It also saw several collaborations between various clubs.
For our profile article, we thought to direct our attention to one of the most popular and probably the most active club on campus- Navrang, the film society.
With humble beginnings, the society has grown to boast one of the largest memberships on campus. With different departments like events, marketing (the team also makes Buzzfeed quizzes based on Navrang’s screenings) and productions (yes, the team that makes movies on campus) looking after various sectors, their latest inductions saw more than a hundred applications. Out of the multitude of applicants, about 30 got in. Although, don’t let the acceptance rate blind you for it’s still the club with the highest interaction with the student body. Last semester, they started a journal wing which features films and tv series-related content, including opinion pieces, reviews, must-watch listicles, etc. Recently, they came out with their newest venture- the Film Club. The club is open to all and is a platform for sharing a mutual love for movies, especially inventive genres and themes with everyone. This theme of creating a sense of community in the Ashokan campus based on the common thread of a love for movies seems to be at the heart of how the society functions.
Navrang’s Jashn-e-Jazbaa showcase
Navrang’s series event: Deconstructed
We decided to look into the history of the society. I sat down with Srijan, one of the board of directors of Navrang, to talk about how the society came about and his plans for the future. The film society or FilmSoc which existed initially was started by the students of Ashoka’s first batch. At the time, they had a small membership and the activities were limited to screening two movies per week. When newer batches came in, the engagement grew and some of the students from the newer batches would email the filmsoc about things they wanted to do with the society, movies they wanted to screen, etc. This included several members from the current Navrang. Simultaneously, Srijan and a couple of these other students decided to start an alternative club- a filmmaking club for they couldn’t get inducted into the already existing film society. Both concepts are closely related in their love for the experience of watching stories on the big screen. They named it Navrang or ‘new colour’. While discussing this history, I found that the members of Navrang of the time spent a lot of time trying to make short movies, especially in Delhi where they would travel over the weekends with their scripts and basic equipment. Production was a big part of their activities and continues as a pertinent part of the club in Navrang’s aforementioned production department. However, as luck would have it, the administration also found the themes of Navrang and the erstwhile filmsoc to be quite related and asked both the groups to merge into one. As a result, we got- Navrang, the film society. This led to several changes in how the society functioned and what activities it undertook. However, the original tradition of screening two movies per week endured, with the new addition of post-movie discussions.
Some of the very first members of Navrang (source: Srijan Sinha, UG20)
One of the main reasons for the popularity of the club seems to be the experience of the members and the student body. The post-movie discussions often turned into intriguing discourses. While talking about this aspect, both Srijan and I stumbled upon the aspect of ‘memorable conversations’ and how movies and tv series often lead to discussions that endure in one’s memory. The society has fully harnessed this aspect of films and has used it to thrive on campus in the face of around the clock events and growing time commitments of students. Moreover, for the members, Navrang has ensured to create a fun space where people can hang out and have informal conversations. The culture within the club itself is one that propagates a fun time. The film society ensures relevance and importance on campus through multiple screenings. The people who decide the weekly screenings try to make certain that the movies either echo or are inspired by events taking place on campus or in the world outside. Events like birthdays of directors and anniversaries of popular movies are also reflected in the weekly screenings. For example, the week which saw protests on campus for curfew saw screenings inspired by themes of protest and restrictions on adolescents. As regards the future, Navrang plans to expand the sustainability enjoyed by its events team to the relatively new team of the Navrang journal.
Jashn-e-Jazbaa lead to the clubs on campus reaffirming their all too strong presence by showcasing their work amongst the hum drums of academic life. It reiterated how the richness of the culture on campus flourishes and endures within these societies and how integral they have been in developing the campus culture.