In 1959, the Federation of Film Societies of India was set up at the initiative of Das Gupta, Satyajit Ray, Mrs. Vijaya Mulay, Mrs. Ammu Swaminathan, Robert Hawkins, Diptendu Pramanick, Abul Hassan and A. Roychowdhury.
There were three Vice Presidents (Ammu Swaminathan, Robert E Hawkins & S Gopalan); Joint Secretaries were Vijaya Mulay and Chidananda Dasgupta and the Joint Treasurers were Diptendu Pramanick and Abul Hasan.