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Aparna Sen, other Bengali directors back FTII students

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Press Trust of India Kolkata
Last Updated : Jul 20 2015 | 9:22 PM IST
National Award winning director Aparna Sen and other Bengali film makers today said the appointment of BJP member and TV actor Gajendra Chouhan as FTTI Chairman over which its students are protesting could be seen as attempts at "saffronising" the institution.
Joining the chorus of support for the students whose strike entered the 39th day today, they demanded dissolution of the Pune-based film institute's governing council. Several Bollywood celebrities have backed the students in their demand to the government for revoking the appointment of Chauhan.
"If a lot of people from a particular party are nominated in a society, then the public perception might be that this particular institute is part of the Sangh Parivar. I am not saying that they are trying to saffronise it but the public perception might be that," Sen said at a discussion on the FTII row here.
FTII students have been on an indenfinite strike against appointment of Chauhan as chairman of the institute's governing body.
Sen said the chairman should be someone who could inspire students and they would be able to look up to him with respect.
"It is difficult to remove political colours completely but we must remember that anti-establishment protests always start from such schools," the director said.

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Bengali film directors Ashoke Viswanathan, Indranil Roychowdhury and documentary filmmaker Sourav Sarangi, all FTII alumni, also supported the students, saying individuals who do not have a good body of work cannot be part of the governing council.
"There was no political involvement earlier and we never saw any posters of political parties inside the campus (of FTII)," Viswanathan said.
Other directors supporting the students include Anik Dutta and Suman Mukhopadhyay.
FTII student Rajorshi Sarkar said they (protestors) are ready for a second round of dialogue with the government on the issue but they want the entire governing body to be dissolved and a new a search committee be formed.
The Government has served an ultimatum on the striking students to return to academic work or face the risk of rustication from the institute.

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First Published: Jul 20 2015 | 9:22 PM IST

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