Aparna Sen, other Bengali directors support FTII students

National Award winning director Aparna Sen and other Bengali film directors today came out openly in favour of FTII students demanding dissolution of the Pune film institute's governing council.
"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 strike for the last 39 days against appointment of TV actor and BJP member Gajendra 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.
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 should be dissolved and a new a search committee be formed.