MUMBAI: On 18 July, 2006 an institute for film, television, animation and media arts was set up in the heart of Filmcity, Mumbai by Subhash Ghai. Today this institute — Whistling Woods International — celebrated its first anniversary amidst core team members, 200 students, faculty, and several professionals from the entertainment industry.

Ghai said, “The past year has seen tremendous growth and the institute is well on its way to create successful future talent for the film and entertainment industry. The institute has offered state-of-the-art training facilities, an internationally developed and structured curriculum, highly respected industry-leaders as faculty, regular guest lectures by feted Indian and international film-makers and the best technology and institutional partnerships India has seen till date. This is largely due to the extensive efforts of our staff and faculty and the valuable support of leading professionals from the Indian media industry.”

He further added, “The success of my students is my dream. I want my students to become great filmmakers and take our cinema to an international level.”

During the event, the heads of departments of the various specializations at WWIL honoured the dignitaries by presenting them with books on Buddha. Those honoured include Govind Nihalani, Manmohan Shetty, Kumar Taurani, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Sukhwinder Singh, Sivamani, Anurradha Prasad, Kundan Shah, Kailash and Aarti Surendranath, Kishen Kumar and Ali Peter John.

The event closed with a sterling performance by India’s ace percussionist – Sivamani.