If Gajendra Chauhan won't go, film students will go to new school

Human nature often pushes people to replace what can't be changed. Even as a week-long strike, campus demonstrations and social media campaigns rock FTII protesting the appointment of new chairman Gajendra Chauhan "of nondescript film career including C-grade movies and commercials fame," to a post earlier held by stalwarts like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Karnad and Saeed Mirza, a new film school - MIT School of Film and Television (MIT-SFT) - which will start intake of students from this September, has been announced.

"This time when the FTII is rocked with the controversy seems the right time right time to start the new campus," the dapper young executive director of the MIT School of Film and Television Rahul Karad (son of Vishwanath Karad who pioneered private engineering education with the Maharashtra Academy of Engineering Education and Research in 1983, which runs 60 institutes across the state) let slip. "The time is ripe for educated youth to come forward to think out of the box and shape their careers. MIT-SFT is a step in that direction." He also underlined how the new film school will be open to ideas from across the political spectrum. "Unlike others, we don't want to shut doors on any school of thought as long as they don't use the space for propaganda."

MIT, Pune has announced admissions for the first batch of its Film and Television Institute which will be located in the sprawling 125-acre campus at Rajbaug in Loni, off Pune where courses in film making and television production, direction, cinematography, sound recording & design, video-editing, production design & art direction, and screenplay writing will be offered.

The illustrious theatre and film director Dr Jabbar Patel as Chairman who will head MIT- SFT carefully tried to side-step the controversy. The filmmaker who has made classics like, Saamna, Jait Re Jait (Mohan Agashe, Smita Patil), Umbarthha (Smita Patil, Girish Karnad), Simhasan (Nana Patekar, Shreeram Lagoo, Reema Lagoo), Mukta, Ek Hota Vidushak, Musafir (Hindi) and the biopic Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar told dna, "It will be inappropriate for me to comment about FTII especially because I was for six years the vice chairperson of the institute when Prof U R Ananthamurthy was the chairman. I am only hoping that things settle down quickly there."

The presence of Dr Patel has seen the who's who of contemporary Indian filmmaking coming on board as mentors on MIT-SFT's academic council or its advisory board. These include filmmakers Mani Ratnam, Goutam Ghose, Shaji Karun, Samar Nakhate, Girish Kasaravalli and Jahnu Barua; iconic actor Mammooty, cinematographer Binod Pradhan (of Jait Re Jait, 1942 A Love Story, Devdas, Rang De Basanti, Mission Kashmir and Munna Bhai MBBS fame), Sreekar Prasad, Resul Pookutty, Jayant Deshmukh, script-writer Kamlesh Pandey (Tezaab, Saudagar and Rang De Basanti), and musician-singer Shankar Mahadevan.

Kamlesh Pandey said, "The best thing about the school is that it has nothing to do with the government because that's where the kind of problems and interference we see around begins," and added, "We call ourselves the largest makers of Indian cinema but how much if it can hold up to the best in world cinema. The US trains and creates between 8-10,000 new script writers every year. Where are ours?"

Echoing him was multiple national and international award winner Jahnu Baruah. "Entertainment is only 5% of the end goal of he cinema. What about the rest like education, awareness, sensitisation which we have forgotten. I hope with this new school we are able to create a culture for that."

Earlier Barua had said, "A person aware about 'the art of filmmaking' would be better-suited for the position of FTII chairman." This member of the FTII society and an alumnus himself underlined, "I'm always there for FTII and I have an emotional attachment towards it. Its my duty to let the government and people know when I see something wrong."

But it is not just the course curriculum or the faculty which could make MIT-SFT give FTII a run for its money. The institute's location also accords it considerable sheen. Rajbaug, where the institute is located, was formerly the residence of Raj Kapoor, the doyen of Indian cinema. "It is here that he conceptualised and created many of his iconic films which are still part of the national conscience," said Patel who added, "He had a home here and was also his final resting ground, along with that his parents Prithviraj Kapoor and Ramsarani Devi. This hallowed ground literally lives and breathes cinema. What better place to have a film school?"

FTII chairman Gajendra Chauhan refused to comment on MIT-SFT. "I don't want to comment on this now," he said. The man at the centre of the controversy, had several questions of his own on the new school and who all were going to be associated with it.