Students from SU’s Newhouse School to go to ‘Bollywood’ through SU Abroad May 21

Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications will continue a pioneering effort in global communications this spring when nine of its students will travel to Mumbai, India, as part of a unique course not offered by anyone else in the world. This is the third year the course has been offered at SU.

“WWI Bollywood Snapshots: SU Internships in Mumbai” (TRF 470) is a one-month course, offered through SU Abroad, that introduces students to the history, aesthetics, language, business and process of filmmaking in India. The course is held from mid-May to mid-June at leading Bollywood director Subhash Ghai’s Whistling Woods International Institute for Film, Television and Media Arts (WWI) and various other locations in Mumbai.

This year, students will travel to India to take part in the course under the direction of Tula Goenka, Newhouse associate professor of television-radio-film. The students will blog about their experiences at http://subollywood2010.wordpress.com. The students leave for Mumbai on May 21 and return on June 24. The trip will also include an official visit to the Taj Mahal.

“The partnership between Whistling Woods International and Syracuse University has been a meaningful one, and every year we look forward to the students coming over for the internship program,” says Meghna Ghai Puri, president of WWI. “Our students here in India get to interact with students from the U.S. and learn from their rich experiences, and vice versa. It is an amazing partnership of two cultures bringing students of cinema from the East and West closer together. I personally am delighted to host the SU team on campus and look forward to more strengthening [of] our bonds.”

Goenka says the course continues to be relevant as Hollywood’s interest in Bollywood—Hindi mainstream cinema from Bombay (Mumbai)—is growing. Bollywood films are now playing in local movie theaters and on YouTube, and are available through Netflix.

Newhouse students traveling to Mumbai include Annalisa Alosco, Audra Coulombe, Bridget Greene, Caroline Moore, Meagan Moyle, Kimberly Ndombe, Kelsie Testa, Darcy Traunsteiner and Victoria Tang.

Goenka, who was born and raised in India, has 25 years of experience in the film and television industry. She has worked with directors such as Spike Lee, Mira Nair and James Ivory. She has also edited several award-winning documentaries, including two that she produced: the PBS documentary “Dancing On Mother Earth,” which chronicles a year in the life of Oneida Indian singer/songwriter Joanne Shenandoah, and “El Charango.” She has served on the board of directors of Breakthrough, an international human rights organization, for 10 years. She is the director of SU’s annual Human Rights Film Festival. Her book “Bollywood & Beyond: Conversations with Indian Filmmakers” is forthcoming from Penguin India in 2011.