From On Air - Spring 2003
Soap Opera Success
Building on the tremendous success of PCI
Annual Soap Summit® in the U.S., Sonny Fox recently completed
a weeklong consulting engagement in India. At the request
of the BBC World Service, Mr. Fox was invited to speak, generate
ideas and share experiences on the future development of an
international version of the popular soap summit in India.
The initial idea of the summit was “to plant seeds,
solicit help,” said Mr. Fox, “it encouraged the
popular TV industry to take itself seriously as communicators
and reminded actors that they do more than just act —
they have the power to change lives.”
Representing PCI, Mr Fox was joined at
the summit by industry leaders Shailja Kejriwal of Star India,
Saurabh Vanzara of Sony Entertainment, Zarina Mehta of UTV,
Siddharth Malhotra and Gul Khan of Cinevista, Roger Pereira
of R & P Management, and Rumu Sen-Gupta of BBC WST.
Exciting plans are also underway in Nairobi, Kenya where
PCI is busy gearing up for an All-Africa entertainment education
Soap Summit. Kate Randolph, PCI’s Vice President for
International Programs commented that the summit would be
a “celebration of arts in all their various manifestations.”
The purpose of the summit, Ms. Randolph explained, is to examine
“communication interventions not only in terms of their
educational messages, but also from the standpoint of the
aesthetic appeal of different art forms on the African continent.”
Dr. Kimani Njogu, PCI’s Africa Representative and
host of the Summit, remarked that “media efforts are
critical in health promotion and there are numerous initiatives
in Africa using media outlets to improve quality of life for
people in a holistic sense. This Summit will bring together
professionals from eleven different countries on the continent
and provide a unique opportunity to reflect not only on utilizing
media as tool to improve the quality of life, but also on
the role of culture, language and the tradition of storytelling.
The Summit is being funded by the Ford Foundation and will
be held in Nairobi in June.
Back to top
|
