The first executive committee of this federation comprised Satyajit Ray as president, three vice-presidents, namely Ms Ammu Swaminathan (Madras), Robert Hawkins (Bombay), S. Gopalan (Delhi), two joint secretaries, Ms Vijaya Mulay (Delhi) and Chidananda Dasgupta (Calcutta), Diptendu Pramanick and Abul Hasan as joint treasurers, and members R Anantharaman, K L Khandpur, Jag Mohan, A Rehman, A Roychowdhury and Ms. Rita Ray.
[3] Two former prime ministers of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi and Mr Inder Kumar Gujral held office in FFSI during its formative years.
India received the idea as a colony of the Imperial administration when a member of the British movement reached Bombay to attempt create a similar organisation in 1937.
The idea of film societies could now germinate in other cities, and new units were formed working independently from Delhi (1956), Bombay, Madras (1957), Roorkee, Patna (1958).
A banned Charles Chaplin was now free to send his films into India; Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin was allowed public screenings from 1955.
Administratively, FFSI has divided its jurisdiction into four Regions of North, East, South and West, and one Sub-Region of Kerala with their Offices in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Trivandrum respectively.