As it celebrates its 50th year, the iconic film school will have to slug it out with newer rivals
It is no coincidence that Ekta Kapoor is drawing up plans to start a rival school the very year Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) celebrates its golden jubilee. Till date, Kapoor has shown sharp business instincts. Once it’s off the ground next year, her school could chip away the brand equity of FTII. Has a street-smart entrepreneur once again identified a state-run institute as a soft target? The possibility cannot be ruled out.
What is certain is that FTII’s monopoly is fast becoming a thing of the past. The first breach, precipitated by the same government that owns FTII, happened in 1995 when Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute was established in Kolkata. The next major rival came a decade later, when film maker Subhash Ghai set up Whistling Woods in 2006, which now trains as many artistes and technicians as FTII. And there are several acting schools across the country, the best-known among them run by Bollywood veterans Anupam Kher and Rahul Rawail, which have loosened FTII’s hold over the industry.
Films and television are big business in India — no other country produces as many films, and nowhere else is so much television footage shot. The demand for talent will only increase in the days to come. Can FTII provide the kind of talent it did in the past — Kher, Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani and Resul Pookutty, among others? Or is it losing its edge?
The institute’s bosses aren’t too concerned. “We remain the premier film school of the country and are in the process of building the FTII brand,” says director Pankaj Rag. As part of the golden jubilee celebrations, the institute has been conducting seminars and exhibitions of works of FTII students, past and present. In September, FTII tied up with Canon for an international film festival, with winners getting Canon camcorders.
Rag’s view is shared by some of the recent graduates. Anup Kurien, the director of Naseeruddin Shah-starrer The Hunt and a 1998-batch alumnus, believes his alma mater is still the best film school in the country, one reason being that “the admission process remains transparent”. “There’s no such thing as ‘jugaad’ in FTII admissions and that’s why quality comes through,” says the 37-year-old director.
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For an institute celebrating its golden jubilee, however, the campus was hardly buzzing with activity when I dropped by in December. Nevertheless, the institute’s equipment does not fail to impress — the two film studios are well-equipped, with at least eight cameras and sufficient lighting. There is a separate TV studio, with a special computer generated graphics facility, and a well-stocked library. I also spot the Wisdom Tree at the centre of the campus, under which students congregate and discuss ideas. Legend has it Ritwik Ghatak often conducted lectures under the Widsom Tree.
The government had, in 2009, appointed Hewitt Associates to recommend steps to upgrade FTII to international standards. In its report, submitted in October last year, the consultancy suggested measures that could make the institute financially independent. (The government, has provided Rs 10 crore to FTII every year, which was increased to Rs 52 crore last year so that it could modernise and expand.) This enraged the students, who were quick to conclude this was little else but privatisation, and they took their protests to the streets of Pune. “The recommendations would have diluted the goodwill FTII has created over the years and put off students from joining the institute,” says Samarth Dixit, the president of the students’ association of FTII. The Hewitt report was thus put on ice, and a new committee, this time led by PK Nair, the head of National Film Archives of India, was tasked with suggesting other measures. The committee is working on its recommendations, which will be revealed in the next few months.
Kurien says this is not the first time there has been talk of privatisation. “When we were students, there was always talk of a business house taking over,” he says. Rag says the institute and the government will not do anything that jeopardises the future of the students. “There are always going to be problems in running an institute of this magnitude but we are working on making it an institute of global standards,” says Rag.
But the unease remains. Oscar winner Resul Pookutty had even made a public plea to “save FTII”. He feels the school should retain its core value, which is to create great cinema, and not look for financial gains. Incidentally, Pookutty is one of the few alumni who believe in giving back to their alma mater. He has set up two scholarships and keeps in touch with alumni through GraFTII, the institute’s alumni community. But the ace sound engineer is an exception. While Bollywood bigwigs like Ashutosh Gowariker lecture regularly at Whistling Woods, there are very few FTII alumni who return to campus to deliver guest lectures.
Thirty years ago, questions were raised about how the institute could work towards the development of Indian cinema. Then, a committee was formed with stalwarts like Shyam Benegal and Mrinal Sen, which suggested FTII had to expand its training facilities, develop a mechanism to monitor what’s happening in global cinema and develop it into an institute par excellence. Had the suggestions been acted upon, the FTII campus would perhaps have looked a little less desolate in its 50th year.
