It’s nearly 8 months that students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) are protesting against appointment of Gajendra Chouhan as Chairmen. The rouge has turned violent on Thursday 7th January, resulted in detention of around 23 students; the arrested students were released on the same day.
Soon after Chauhan reached the campus at 11.30 AM, the newly-constituted FTII Society begun with its first meeting, which was intended to form governing council and academic council. A group of 80 students were sitting outside the theater building, holding placards following the protest. When a dhol-tasha troupe invited by the staff started beating up drums. The protesting students rushed to the location and there was confrontation between both the groups.
The heavy security deployed considering the protest, intervene the quarrel and arrested 23 students which included two girls as well.
Although the administration had removed all protest installations and graffitti from the main entrance and walls of the institute, the students put up fresh graffiti and banners deriding the government for “failing to listen to the voice of the people”.
“We had no intention of disrupting the meeting or stopping anyone from entering the premises… While the police protected the other party, they beat us up, pushed us into the vans, and took us to the police station,” claimed Swapnil Ninawe, a Final Year film direction student.
Staff association members, however, said they had every right to welcome the head of the institute in the way they wanted.
Meanwhile, as reported by The Indian Express, the FTII Society appointed Brijendra Pal Singh — the maker of popular television series CID — as the chairman of FTII’s academic council and vice-chairman of the governing council. Singh was also made vice-president of the FTII Society.
This means is that Singh, an alumnus of the institute, will be in charge of the top policy-making body on academic affairs at the institute. That will leave Chauhan to decide essentially on “administrative matters” while issues related to academics, curriculum, etc would be dealt with by Singh.
“The appointment of B P Singh as chairman of the academic council is not a compromise. It is just an adjustment the government has made to meet the concerns raised by the students and the requirements of the institute. With this move, we have accommodated the students,” said a top government functionary.
Today’s meeting was also attended by director Rajkumar Hirani, actor Satish Shah, ABVP leader Narendra Pathak, actor Rahul Solapurkar, documentary maker Anagha Ghaisas, cinematographer Shailesh Gupta, Pranjal Saikia, journalist Bhawana Somaaya, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor Dr Subhash Sharma, National Film Archive Director Prakash Magdum and FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe.
Hirani, Shah, Saikia, Pathak and Somaaya were nominated to the governing council.
