Early challenge for FTII chairman Anupam Kher as trouble brews between students and admin

It looks like actor Anupam Kher, the new chairman of the Film and television institute of India (FTII) will be greeted with a fresh controversy when he will be visiting the FTII in coming days. A group of students from second year have decided to boycott an academic project called 'dialogue exercise' citing that the fact that the administration reduced the number of days for the exercise from three days to two while the administration also remained firm on its stand that it will not give more than two days to complete the exercise.

The controversy erupted on Wednesday when the administration of FTII issued notices to five students of second year to vacate hostels for boycotting the dialogue exercise. Following the notices, the delegation of FTII Students Association held a meeting with the administration on Thursday morning after which the administration decided to revoke the notices and allowed the concerned students to stay in the hostels. However, the standoff between student body and the administration over the issue of dialogue exercise has continued.

As a part of the curriculum, the second-year students from direction, cinematography, sound design, editing and art direction have to shoot a short film. However, the protesting students have decided to boycott the exercise stating earlier, the students would get three days where they could shoot the film working eight hours a day, however with changed norms, the administration has reduced the days of shooting from three days to two days but they have increased the working hours from eight hours a day to twelve hours a day.

"It is not feasible to work for 12 hours shift for two days and forcing the light men, carpenters and other workers to work for longer stretch. Therefore, we are demanding that the administration should give an additional day and make the working shift of eight hours which was the earlier norm," Robin Joy, president of the association told DNA.

The student body and the administration have been holding meetings on the same issue from last couple of months but there has been no headway.

Justifying the norms of reducing the dialogue exercise to two days, the administration has stated that the purpose of reducing the exercise to two days is to complete the semester in time and to avoid backlog.

However, amidst the standoff, the administration held a meeting with students’ body to give some suggestions to break the deadlock. Amit Tyagi, dean (films) said, "Before the start of the shooting for dialogue exercise, the students take one day for making arrangements for lighting. During the meeting, we suggested them that they can start shooting from that day also as they do not require entire day to make arrangements of lights. However, they did not accept the suggestion."

Administration has made it clear that if the students do not start shooting for dialogue exercise in next few days, they will not be able to do it again.

Meanwhile the association has written an open letter to Anupam Kher to raise certain issues related to the institute.

FTII students’ association, the students body had raised question mark over Kher's appointment stating that there is an issue of conflict of interest as the veteran actor runs his own acting institute in Mumbai.

Following the announcement of the actor's appointment, the association held a general body meeting at the campus on Wednesday night and based on the issues discussed during the meeting, the open letter has been drafted.

Robin Joy, president of FTII students’ association told DNA, "Through this open letter, we are asking some questions to Kher and we wish to hear a reply from him."

In the letter, the association has raised various issues including their objection over introduction of short-term courses, issues related to open day and foundation day celebrated by the administration.

Claiming that the short-term courses are being run to generate funds, the association in the letter mentioned that the premier film institute of the country started ideally to impart learning different aspects of film making but now the institute is being turned into an institute which runs short-term crash courses for generation of funds.

"We sincerely believe that the short-term courses which are being run cannot impart knowledge on film making in such a short duration. The government institute that exists to provide education to the students from all section should be driven by the agenda of funds generation which currently seems to be the aim of the institute," the letter mentions.