Cinema is a literacy
your students deserve.
One curated film a week. A trained volunteer. A complete discussion guide. Almost no cost to you. Here is what Drishyam does — and why it works.
★ The case for cinema in schools
Hours of screen time daily
The average urban Indian child. None of it is taught. Almost none is discussed. Drishyam changes what children do with that attention — and what they keep.
Of CBSE / ICSE curriculum
Film gets no space in any mainstream Indian school curriculum. We are not proposing to replace anything. We add one hour a week that is purely additive.
Films curated by age band
Junior (8–10), Middle (11–13), Senior (14–17). Every film selected for what it opens up in discussion, not for what it avoids. World cinema. Indian regional. Documentary.
Cost to partner schools
Drishyam is volunteer-led. Schools provide the room and the students. We provide the volunteer, the curriculum, and the films (through legitimate streaming platforms your school already pays for).
Among all the things children consume, film does something none of the others quite do. It asks for two unbroken hours of full attention. It puts a child inside another life. — Drishyam manifesto
How the programme works
Drishyam runs as a weekly co-curricular session — typically 90 minutes on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. One session a week, one film per term (screened across two sessions where needed). A trained Drishyam volunteer runs every session.
- Your school hosts. We recruit and train the volunteer.
- We provide the complete session guide: synopsis, discussion questions, activities, content notes, sourcing instructions.
- The session begins with the screening and ends with a structured discussion. No test. No grade. Just the conversation the film creates.
- We track nothing about individual children. Your school keeps all student data.
- We ask for one thing in return: a brief feedback form from the volunteer after each session, so we can improve the guides.
What your school gets
As a partner school, you receive:
- A dedicated Drishyam volunteer, recruited and trained by us, background-checked through your school's standard process.
- Access to the full library: 50 films, with complete teaching guides for all of them over time.
- A curated 10-film programme for your specific age group, sequenced for the term.
- Pre-session parent communication templates — we know parents ask.
- A Drishyam certificate for students who complete a full term, if your school wants one.
- Our full email and WhatsApp support for your school coordinator throughout the term.
The film library
The Drishyam library has been built over three years by a team of educators, film critics, and school counsellors. Every film is selected against the same criteria:
- Age-appropriate without being condescending. Films that treat children as intelligent.
- Emotionally resonant enough to spark conversation. Not just "educational" in a narrow sense.
- Diverse by country, language, and gender. Students should see the world on screen, not just one version of it.
- Legally sourceable — available on a streaming platform accessible to Indian schools, or as a licensed DVD.
- Accompanied by a complete, teacher-tested discussion guide.
Three guides are currently available in full: My Neighbour Totoro (Junior), Taare Zameen Par (Middle), and Stanley Ka Dabba (Middle). More are added each term.
Questions we hear most often
Does this require any technology investment by the school?
No. You need a projector (or a large TV) and a room. If you have Netflix, Amazon Prime, or ZEE5, most of the library is accessible. Where a film is only available on DVD, we can help arrange a licensed copy.
How do you find and train volunteers?
We recruit through our partner networks — primarily university film societies, young professionals, and retired educators. Every volunteer goes through a background check process aligned with your school's safeguarding policy and a two-day training programme run by us before they enter a classroom.
What is the time commitment for the school coordinator?
About 30 minutes per week: confirming the room, circulating the session note to parents if needed, and giving us 5-minute feedback after each session. We deliberately designed this to be low-overhead for the school.
Can the school choose which films to screen?
Yes — within the age-band curriculum for your school. We provide a recommended sequence but the final selection is always yours. If a film is sensitive for a specific class context, we'll find an alternative with equivalent themes and a complete guide.
What if our students aren't used to reading subtitles?
This is the most common concern — and it usually dissolves after the first ten minutes of Totoro. We recommend starting every Junior programme with Totoro for exactly this reason. Our guides include specific notes on how to help students adjust to subtitled film.
★ Ready to start?
Bring Drishyam
to your school.
Fill in the partner school registration form. We will reply within 48 hours to arrange a call and answer any questions your principal or coordinator has.