(This is the English
version of an article published on BBC Hindi on September 22, 2015)
DESTINATION: PRIVATISATION?
The Central
government’s unrelenting propaganda against FTII’s striking students and the
institution itself hints at a goal that goes beyond ending the current impasse
By Anna MM Vetticad
 |
| (Above) A still from this year's Bollywood hit Badlapur starring Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, directed by FTII alumnus Sriram Raghavan who is from the institute's 1987 batch; and (below) Malayalam film actor Vinay Forrt who passed out of FTII in 2009 |
This week the
Central Government is expected to begin “unconditional talks” aimed at ending
the strike at Pune’s Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). About time
too. In the 100-plus days since protests began against the Centre’s
appointments to the prestigious institution – including actor Gajendra Chauhan
as FTII Society president – the sarkar
has run a blatant misinformation campaign against the striking students.
Apart from being
embarrassed by the strike, the government’s antagonism could be attributed to the
ruling BJP’s conviction that FTII is a bastion of Communists. The party insists
that students would have objected irrespective of who this government had
chosen. Facts indicate otherwise. When actor and BJP MP Vinod Khanna helmed the
institute under the previous BJP-led government, students did not question his appointment.
His acceptability came from his eminence in the field of cinema.
Interestingly, government
propaganda is also being directed at FTII per se, with the repeated suggestion
that it has not produced noteworthy alumni for many decades. Chauhan himself
has been widely quoted as saying: “Barring Rajkumar Hirani, the institute has not produced any
important artiste.”
In reality, FTII has churned out
numerous luminaries. Hirani’s batchmate from 1987, Sriram Raghavan, directed
this year’s Hindi hit Badlapur
starring Varun Dhawan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. In theatres now is the Malayalam
hit Premam with which actor Vinay
Forrt, from the institute’s 2009 batch, has audiences rolling in the aisles laughing.
2014’s National and international award-winning Marathi film Killa is directed by Avinash Arun, who
passed out in 2011, and written by fellow FTII-ian Tushar Paranjpe. The list is endless.
While the government is right
in pointing out that the institute is battling major systemic problems (a
matter that students themselves have been raising for long), it is insidiously
misleading the public about the track record of the institute’s alumni.
A possible
motive for this propaganda has been emerging from mainstream and social media
commentary by prominent pro-BJP voices. One columnist asked the party to “yank central
funding” from FTII and “create a new institution manned by the right kind of
academics and intellectuals… friendly to its way of thinking”.
Another alleged that
annual government expenditure per student is Rs 13 lakh, four times the
amount spent on a student at the Indian Institute of Technology. The figure has
since been proved dubious by an RTI application filed by a student, the
response to which shows that institute expenses unrelated to the students are
being attributed to them (such as a film appreciation course for outsiders, a
contest for film schools across India and a contribution to the Prime
Minister’s Relief Fund).
FTII’s
Students’ Association alleged in a press release that during a dialogue on July
3, I&B Minister Arun Jaitley indicated that if they did not end their strike, they could
face “shut down and eventual privatisation.” The Ministry has denied this, but
film personalities present at the meeting back the students’ version.
Was privatisation
on the agenda in June when Chauhan was annointed? After all, a respected artist
is unlikely to be as pliable as a non-entity entirely beholden to his sarkari bosses for the post. Besides, most
heavyweights might avoid supporting a proposal that has been decried by
students and many in the film industry in the past.
The widespread
support for the ongoing strike would make it hard for the Ministry to openly propose
privatisation for a while now… unless of course it succeeds in convincing tax-payers
that the striking students are a talentless, expensive burden on the exchequer
and that investment in the future of Indian cinema is a waste of public money.
(Anna MM Vetticad is the author of The Adventures of an Intrepid Film Critic. Twitter: @annavetticad)
Link to original column in Hindi:
Photographs
courtesy:
Note: These photographs were not
sourced from bbchindi.com
Related
article by Anna MM Vetticad: “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics” published in The Hindu
Businessline
good write up but it was disappointing you didnt mention sanrhosh sivan, adoor gopalakrishnan, resul pookutty , rajeev ravi and dozen others who are even more acclaimed than the ones mention, who, as it is, are very good as well.
ReplyDeletegood write up but it was disappointing you didnt mention sanrhosh sivan, adoor gopalakrishnan, resul pookutty , rajeev ravi and dozen others who are even more acclaimed than the ones mention, who, as it is, are very good as well.
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