A group of 87 members of the film community today slammed the Centre over what was alleged to be the high-handed treatment meted out to students of FTII-Pune during the ongoing International Film Festival of India here.
"We would like to place on record our solidarity with FTII students and our anguish at the way they continue to be treated by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and its various departments," the group said in a letter that was addressed to I&B Minister Arun Jaitley, Minister of State Rajyavardhan Rathore and IFFI Festival Director, C Senthil Rajan.
The filmmakers' group, among them noted documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and filmmaker Madhushree Dutta, deprecated what it charged was the arrest of students "for exercising their democratic right to protest" and "false charges being framed against them".
The filmmakers also expressed disapproval vis-a-vis allegations that students were "denied entry into the festival despite valid accreditation simply because they happen to be from FTII" and further criticised the move which saw a student being put in preventive detention during the festival.
The festival does not feature films made by the students who, by way of protest, organised a two-day parallel festival.
"These are measures that have nothing to do with the objectives that IFFI was set up for," the statement said while further alleging that the decision to drop the student' films section "smacked of retaliation for the 139 days protest led by the FTII students against the current government".
The filmmakers called for the students from the premier film institute to be allowed to participate in the remainder of the festival, which ends on November 30, saying they have a right to attend IFFI.
"We also demand that all cases filed against FTII students be withdrawn," they said.
FTII students had gone on a strike in protest against the appointment of TV actor and BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institute's Governing Council. They later withdrew the strike after it had lasted for 139 days without any of their core demands being addressed.
The students have said that although the strike has been withdrawn, "the protest is continuing".
