Celebration of cinematic merit with Pan-India unity by INCA ( Indian National Cine Academy Awards), ensuring full credibility with no paid star performances, "assures visionary INCA Founder Vishnu Vardhan Induri, in presence of galaxy of top celebs !! By Sr. Journalist Chaitanya Padukone

The Indian National Cine Academy (INCA) was officially announced today in Mumbai as a national cinematic institution aimed at bringing together all Indian film industries on a single, unified platform. Envisioned as a long-term institution for Indian cinema, INCA seeks to foster collaboration, knowledge-sharing, transparency, and credible recognition across languages, regions, and crafts.

The announcement was made in the presence of leading filmmakers, producers, celeb-artistes, and cultural luminaries from across the country, including Rohit Shetty, Anand L Rai, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Dil Raju, Manoj Tiwari, Navraj Hans, Manmohan Shetty, Khushbu Sundar, Manish Goswami, Lakshmi Manchu, Ankur Garg, INCA founders Vishnu Vardhan Induri,and Shibasish Sarkar, among several other eminent voices from across a broad spectrum of professions along with the Producers Guild of India coming on board as the Chief Patron of the initiative.

Speaking at the media-event,, eminent South regional and Hindi film-producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Founder of INCA, said, “INCA it is being built with intent, integrity, and purpose. Our goal is to create a permanent national institution that enables collaboration across industries, recognises and celebrates excellence and merit fairly, and builds a universal talent database for Indian cinema.”

Commenting on the association, Shibasish Sarkar, President, Producers Guild of India, said, “INCA represents an important step towards institutionalising collaboration, credibility, and transparent processes in building a unified Awards platform that celebrates all Indian languages equally and credibly. The Guild is pleased to support this initiative as Chief Patron

Bhojpuri superstar, singer and star M.P.. politician Manoj Tiwari revealed,and claimed.”A year 2004 Bhojpuri film of mine ( "Sasura Bada Paisewala) was made for Rs 30 lakh and has done business worth Rs 54 crore till date.. But neither the director nor the writer received any award or recognition. Vishnu-Sir  has provided a pan-India credible platform through which we all started getting to know each other, and people started getting to know us a little too. I am fully confident that INCA is a very big step and will become even  much bigger,," said.Manoj Tiwari.

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Speaking at the INCA event, eminent film director Rohit Shetty,( of 'Golmaal, ' Chennai Express, ' Singham movies fame)  who with his jovial nature, took a self-mocking sarcastic jibe- at himself and award shows. "Mera aur awards ka door-door ka rishta nahi hai. I've done 17 films and haven't got any single award, I'm only called for hosting the award shows events," said Shetty.  The articulate yet frank Rohit also went on to talk about the actual number of people visiting the cinema halls. "The sad part about the footfall of any film, no matter how big a hit it might be, is that the footfall is never more than 4 crore. And the reason behind it is the language barrier. Also, we shouldn't be proud of being called Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood, it should be recognised as Hindi cinema or  Indian cinema or Telugu Cinema," he added.

Known for her candid, frank  nature and oratory skills  South-side charming star actress-producer-political leader Kushboo Sundar while highly appreciating Vishnu Vardhan's  INCA Awards initiative which will  ensure maximum credibility and will reward deserving merit,,  also suggested that  the Audio-Visual short film featuring only star-actors which was screened at the  Awards event should also include the footage of great Indian film directors-film-makers ! . " The endearing terms like Kollywood, Tollywood, Bollywood etc should be done away with. We all should come under one large cinematic umbrella making good films. We belong to Indian Cinema and not divided by regional or language barriers., Cinematic art is fluid and should not be captured or confined together. Lets all flow togetherm " insisted Tamil star-actress Kushboo Sundar who during her initial career has acted as child-artiste in many Hindi movies like 'Dard Ka Rishta,  The Burning Train, Kaalia and some years later in major roles  in Meri Jung , Janoo and Tan Badan and Deewana Mujh Sa Nahin 

He also went on to talk about the actual number of people visiting the cinema halls. "The sad part about the footfall of any film, no matter how big a hit it might be, is that the footfall is never more than 4 crore. And the reason behind it is the language barrier. Also, we shouldn't be proud of being called Bollywood, Tollywood or Kollywood, it should be recognised as Hindi cinema, Indian cinema or Telugu cinema," he added.

The first edition of the two-day INCA Awards has been announced to be held on March 9, 2026 with a proposed previous day interactive symbiotic Conclave session  in Mumbai, marking a significant milestone in the journey of this new national iconic institution.

Indian National Cine Academy goes beyond being an awards platform and is structured as a national ecosystem for Indian cinema, comprising an annual interactive Cinema Conclave, a transparent and process-driven awards framework, and the creation of a universal database of actors, technicians, and creative professionals across twelve Indian film industries. This database aims to enable cross-industry and cross-regional collaboration, strengthening the Indian film ecosystem.