Annual Festival

Beacons November 2023

Nitte Institute of Communication organized Beacons, the two-day intercollege media fest on 17th &18th November 2023. As always, the Fest saw keen competition between participating colleges. For the first time this year, Beacons was opened to students of Pre-University Colleges also.

The theme for this year’s fest was Social Media, with the tagline, Scroll. Share. Succeed. The Social Media Spectacle. In keeping with the theme, Day 1 began with the inauguration of the event by popular Mumbai-based Education Influencer, Pooja Gupta whose channel on YouTube, Media Mentor has a strong subscriber base among students of Media. A student of Media & Communication herself, in her inaugural address, she spoke of the unlimited career opportunities that are available to a student of Communication and lauded the Institute on the excellent infrastructure and resources being provided to students.

The inauguration was presided over by Prof Shweta, Principal, Nitte Institute of Speech & Hearing (NISH). Addressing the gathering, she said, as Speech Therapists and Audiologists, NISH is also in the area of communication, although on a physiological level. She also spoke of how social media is now an integral part of every person’s life and how addicted, people are to information received over popular social media handles.

Alumni Megha Malar (Class of 2020 BA), a trained Bharatnatyam dancer presented a beautiful piece on Durga/Shakti and received a huge round of applause from the audience. Megha along with her Guru & team has just returned from a 10-day tour of Korea, where they presented their dance ballet in different cities. This performance marked the opening of the two-day event. Prof Raviraj, Head, Nitte Institute of Communication welcomed the guests - Megha & the participating colleges. Beacons also saw popular local social media influencers Officially Sane, Neglected Romeo, Wencita Dias, among others coming over to the Institute to judge the competitions.

Day 2 saw the Valedictory Function presided over by popular influencers and co-founders of Mangalore Meri Jaan, Waseem Katipalla & Raghav Nayak and Artist Kamil Reza.

The evening began with alumni Sathwik Shetty (BA, Class of 2017), screening the teaser of his latest short film “Dhakke” which was well received by the audience. Team Dhakke was present at the venue to promote their film and answer queries from students. Sathwik also doubled up as judge for the short filmmaking contest that was organized as part of Beacons. The evening ended with the much-awaited prize distribution, with the first place being bagged by Vivekananda College, Puttur. School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, Mangalore stood second.

In the Pre-University Category, Maps PU College, Mangalore emerged winners and Expert PU College, Mangalore stood second. Beacons 2023 was organized and coordinated by Prakash K, Asst. Professor with student coordinators Anupama and Aarya.

Beacons January 2023

Beacons 2023, the intercollege media fest was celebrated with a lot of enthusiasm on the 6th and 7th of January 2023 at the Institute premises. A total of 23 colleges from all over the district and outside participated in the fest.

Being celebrated after a gap of three years, owing to the pandemic, Beacons was inaugurated by Prithvi Konanur, award winning filmmaker and an alumnus of New York Film Academy. His movie Railway Children won the National Award for Best Child Artist (2017) and was selected for screening at the Panorama section of IFFI 2017. His films have been screened at popular international film festival and have come in for a lot of appreciation.

Addressing the gathering he said “The kind of equipment that is available to students here is very impressive and you should make the most of it.” “Not many colleges offer the kind of variety NICO is offering both in terms of infrastructure, the resource persons that come here or the activities that the Institute conducts regularly,” he said. He also spoke of the long association he has had with the Institute and reminisced over the times he has spent at NICO and also at the Nitte International Film Festival.

Presiding over the event, Prof (Dr) Fatima D’silva, Principal, Nitte Usha Institute of Nursing Sciences said she was happy to see the energy on campus and congratulated students on coming together and hosting the event.

The two days saw keen competition between the colleges. Judges included well known dancer Kaushik Suvarna and team, RJ Ajay and RJ Anushree from Radio Mirchi, Prof Nemiraj Shetty, Art Curator, Social Media Influencers Advika Shetty and Prerana Shetty among others.

Upon judging the event, Kaushik Suvarna and team took to the stage and performed to popular numbers keeping the crowd on their toes who kept asking for more. To say they set the stage on fire would be an understatement, such was the grace and brilliance of their performance.

The event ended on the evening of Day 2 with SDM College of Law coming first and bagging the trophy. Vaikunta Baliga College of Law, Udupi came a close second. Manaswini Hosakere, Assistant Director, Knowledge Management & Client Communications, Ernst & Young Global, gave away the prizes. Students of NICO put up a cultural evening for the guests, with the college band coming up with some popular numbers.

Food stalls selling biryani, kabab, brownies, milk shakes and fruit juices made brisk business.

Beacons 2019

Beacons October 2018 - VI Edition

The sixth annual media fest was held on October 4th and 5th, 2018. Renowned journalist and filmmaker Paranjoy Guha Thakurta inaugurated the event held at the Institute’s campus in Deralakatte.

The fest, which aims to introduce media-related events and competitions to students from different backgrounds, is now an integral part of life at NICO. Students from around 20 different colleges in and around Karnataka gathered at the campus for two days and participated in 18 events and competitions. The competitions included Photography, Creative Writing, T.V News Bulletin, Digital Poster Making, R.J Hunt, and Crisis Management. Pre-event categories included short film making, documentary, video PSA and video advertisements.

Being a media college, the fest invites Speakers from the industry to address students about important issues in media and journalism, considering it important to start a conversation. Past speakers have included Prakash Belwadi and Vasanthi Hariprakash. This year, Mr Thakurta addressed students about how the rise of social media has drastically changed the traditional media landscape. He spoke about the dangerous rise of fake news and misinformation, attributing it partly to the dependency of media houses on revenue from government and corporate advertisements.

The programme concluded on October 5 – Alva’s College, Moodabidri were declared the overall champions and St Xavier’s College, Goa, runners-up. Dr Smitha Hegde, Professor, Nitte University Centre for Science Education & Research was the Chief Guest for the Valedictory function.

Beacons 2018

Nitte Institute of Communication (NICO) organized the fifth edition of Beacons, the two-day national level inter-collegiate media fest, on March 8th and 9th 2018 at the Institute's premises in Deralakatte. The fest, themed ‘Dissent is Necessary"; was inaugurated by Prakash Belawadi, a well-known theater, film, television and media personality.

The fest aimed to introduce media-related events and competitions to students from different backgrounds and saw a total of 16 competitions including short-film making, face painting, escape room, potpourri, theme-dance, creative writing, RJ hunt, product launch, photography, mock press, quiz, crisis management and movie spoof.

The new events added to the existing list were video PSA and video bulletin.

Beacons 2017

"I believe there has never been a better time to be in the media as convergence has given a better platform for journalists to explore technology and use it in the right way for ethical journalism," said Vasanthi Hariprakash, media personality at the inauguration of the fourth edition of Beacons.

Throwing light on the importance of the accessibility of media in rural places, she called budding journalists to be the new winds of change that keep the values of humanity and journalism flying high.

She also gave the example of Dakshina Kannada as a celebration of convergence with various languages and cultures seamlessly melding together. She urged students to make use of this opportunity to adapt to the new media paradigm.

Mr Vishal Hegde, Pro Chancellor, Nitte (Deemed to be University) in his presidential speech, called out to media students to not to get carried away by the convenience of new media, instead, use it for building a better future for people at large.

Beacons 2016

The third edition of Beacons was held on 8th and 9th March 2016 and was inaugurated by Director B.S. Lingadevaru, on Tuesday, March 8 at the Institute premises in Deralakatte. The fest began with the screening of the award-winning movie ‘Naanu Avanalla Avalu’, followed by a discussion and debate on the same.

In his inaugural speech, he discussed movie-making skills and the current scenario of the film industry. Emphasising on the influence of cinema and media on human behavior he said that cinema should not be looked at as something that is in "fashion", instead it should be one's passion.

A total of 115 students from 13 different colleges participated in the media festival.

Spot Photography, Movie Spoof, Creative Writing, Product Launch, Radio Jockeying, Just a Minute, Stand-up Comedy and Poster Making were a few of the events held.

Beacons 2015

The second edition of Beacons was held on 16th March 2015 at the Institute premises. Dr Nithin Acharya, alumnus AB Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences was the Chief Guest and Dr M S Moodithaya, Registrar, Nitte (Deemed to be University) was the Guest of Honour.

Beacons 2014

NICO's annual student festival, Beacons, a two-day media fest was launched in February 2014. The maiden edition was held on 16th March 2014 at the Institute premises. Mr Vasanth Kumar Perla, Executive Director, Akashvani, Mangalore was the Chief Guest and Dr Ramanand Shetty, Vice Chancellor, Nitte (Deemed to be University) was the Guest of Honour.

The Beacons trophy was won by St Aloysius Degree College, Mangalore.