Press Release - 11th November, 2010

Students’ Association

Film and Television Institute of India,

Law College Road,

Pune:411004

PRESS RELEASE

The premier Institute of film learning Film and Television of India is today facing a struggle for its very existence. For fifty years the Institute has been a free space for the creative and aesthetic exploration of the art of film making. But a concerted attempt by the Ministry of I&B and the administration to transform the structure and functioning of the Institute is threatening the very vision of FTII as a centre of academic excellence.

The policy level shift of seeing FTII as a business venture rather than as a national centre of higher learning has resulted in a steady qualitative depletion and erosion of academic atmosphere and values in the institute.

Further, an apathetic administration has rendered the Institute dysfunctional. Students have been drawing the administration’s attention to the lack of basic infrastructure and resources repeatedly, but only ad hoc measures have been doled out. The Institute is unable to accommodate the current students and the lack of basic infrastructure is severely impeding their academic pursuits.

The administration is in denial and is preparing to admit another batch in an Institute that is bursting at it seams. The Institute is not just ill equipped to handle another batch, but is heading towards a complete physical collapse, in the face of new admissions.

All constitutional means of voicing these legitimate grievances have been subverted as every channel of dialogue and communication between the students and the authorities has been completely sidelined..

Instead of addressing the pressing problems of the students on campus, the government has, on more than one occasion, shown its intent to withdraw its support from the running of the institute. A continuous pressure has been put to make the institute “profit generating”.

The latest in this series of steps is a draft report prepared by Hewitt Associates, Gurgaon, regarding what is being portrayed as an “up gradation of the FTII to international standards”. This is just a fanciful misnomer for a planned withdrawal of the government’s stake in FTII.

The report states that the FTII should be re-modeled along the lines of Public Private Partnership (PPP), strongly advocating the launch of a number of exorbitantly priced, “industry oriented”, short terms courses to make the institute profit generating.

We feel that such a policy will make the FTII exclusive and homogeneous, catering only to a certain set of people – those who can afford it. People will be ‘trained’ for the job market rather than organic professionals looking at cinema not just as a craft, but also as an art form.

Students, with the continuous support of the alumni, filmmakers, artistes, academicians and scholars have been resisting this mindset of the ministry towards FTII, but the authorities are continually bypassing our concerns.

FTII is being designed as an institution solely dedicated to profit generation, altering the moral fabric of the institute and annihilating the vision that it has stood for the past five decades. We take pride in an Institute that enables creative people from diverse backgrounds to come here and become part of a rich tradition of film making, but the myopia of the I&B Ministry and the administration will destroy the ethics and spirit of FTII, the space that incubates, nurtures and re-defines film making as an art form in India.

The students need the support of concerned citizens, academic and educational Institutions, scholars, writers, artistes, and the civil society of Pune, cutting across the cultural and social strata, to preserve the rich heritage of Prabhat studio and the soul of Film and Television Institute of India.

Samarth Dixit           

President                                                                                               

Students’  Association