The students of FTII have serious questions about the way their institution is to be run, says Aritra Sarkar.
The 12th week of the FTII strike is about to begin. As we sit with each other for one of our late night meetings, I realise how far we have travelled as a student body, which is now accountable for running an eventful protest for the past 77 days.
I also remember those initial days, when students of all ideologies gathered under our wisdom tree with one set of questions on their minds. How are the five members of the FTII society appointed? Is there a transparent process involved? Is there really a “person of eminence” clause in the FTII policy of appointing its members?
Turns out, there was, in fact, such a clause. All we wanted was to know how these five people managed to be eligible, as far as that is concerned. Along with that, there was fear. A bunch of us believed that there is going to be a serious threat to the process and the working and ideation principles on which students make their films. Others believed that the liberated form of interaction, which exists between students and faculty, is slowly going to be killed with the current state of moral policing under this governance. In short, we feared to lose our freedom of expression.
How are the five members of the FTII society appointed? Is there a transparent process involved? Is there really a “person of eminence” clause in the FTII policy of appointing its members? Turns out, there was, in fact, such a clause.
FTII’s academic functioning depends majorly on the student-faculty interaction; teachers would happily let students pass on their insights to each other on any respective topic and diminish the hierarchy in order to ensure the free flow of knowledge. Student projects, thus, would reflect a distinct individuality, where the student collaborates with his/her fellow mates with a seemingly innate sensitivity.
Which is why, I believe, students become so interested about the way things run and work on campus. We have this internal desire to question anything that we do not understand, or feel disturbed by.
On 21 August 2013, a group of ABVP members attacked FTII student representatives for screening a film that didn’t match up to their ideologies and for not saying “Jai Narendra Modi” on intimidation. Narendra Pathak, one of the selected members of the society, was then the president the Maharashtra wing of the ABVP.
Another member, Anagha Ghaisa, has a court order issued against her, which says she has little knowledge about films and has no idea about the difference between fiction and non-fiction.
Another member, Anagha Ghaisa, has a court order issued against her, which says she has little knowledge about films and has no idea about the difference between fiction and non-fiction. She has also made documentaries celebrating the demolition of Babri Masjid as an independence day of sorts.
Rahul Solapurkar, another member, has been an RSS member since childhood; Sailesh Gupta might be an FTII alumnus, but his only claim to fame is a propaganda film for the prime minister’s election campaign.
To top it off, we researched a bit on our Chairman, as no one had any clear idea about who he really was. We found out that he did, in fact, appear in BR Chopra’s Mahabharata as Yudhishtir, as well as some adult potboilers, but seems to have been hibernating since then, with respect to his body of work.
The only thing the present appointments inspire are questions. Questions about the appointment procedure, questions about the threat to safeguard of authenticity and integrity of academics, questions about the future of FTII.
Now, FTII has been fortunate enough to have had eminent artists, with immense bodies of work and credentials, as members and chairs of its society in the past: Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Karnad, UR Ananthamurthy and Saeed Mirza, among others. Each of them have, in some way or the other, inspired a large group of students to believe in the kind of cinema that FTII stands for, even before they had joined as the chairman.
Unfortunately, the only thing the present appointments inspire are questions. Questions about the appointment procedure, questions about the threat to safeguard of authenticity and integrity of academics, questions about the future of FTII. Meanwhile, three personalities on the society who do have credible bodies of work—Jahnu Barua, Santosh Sivan and Pallavi Joshi—have resigned in solidarity with the students’ strike.
It took us a single night’s meeting, to converge on an opinion. We debated the entire night but the fear was unanimous. As we called for the pause of all academic activities, we realized that we have so much to do, now on.
Throughout the agitation, we regularly met for our late-night general body meetings, which often went on into the wee hours of the morning. We questioned ourselves, critiqued one another’s approach that we had problems with, questioned the righteousness and apparent clashes of ideologies.
What followed for the next 77 days was eventful and uniformly participated. We reached out to alumni, independent artists around the world, big names in film industries, concerned citizens around the country and students of different institutions to start with. We arranged for cultural programmes that instigate more questions, focusing on the intricacies of education as a whole, film screenings that allowed participation from all around, workshops and masterclasses by important academicians who inspire progressiveness and sensibility.
Throughout the agitation, we regularly met for our late-night general body meetings, which often went on into the wee hours of the morning. We questioned ourselves, critiqued one another’s approach that we had problems with, questioned the righteousness and apparent clashes of ideologies. We dealt with our internal problems, leaving aside our individual problems and baggage to form a collective, while retaining the individuality.
While our characters were being assassinated by right-wing groups—we were called anti-nationals, anti-Hindu, Naxalites and trolled again and again on the Internet—for raising valuable questions, we were also being supported simultaneously by important personalities from across the globe. Sensing a requirement for escalation and bring the individual voices to one, we organised an all-India protest march on 2 July, where supporters in Trivandrum, Kolkata, Mumbai. Kolhapur, Amravati, Patna, Bhopal, Aurangabad, Beed, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Trichur, Kochi, Varanasi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Allahabad marched in their respective cities to show solidarity.
While our characters were being assassinated by right-wing groups for raising valuable questions, we were also being supported simultaneously by important personalities from across the globe.
This overwhelming day led to another giant leap, when we marched from Jantar Mantar to Parliament at New Delhi on 3 August. We were joined by students from different colleges of the capital. The result was an astounding response from the youth and concerned educationists and artists, who shared their concerns about the future of our nation, which under this fascist regime, condemns any free flow of dissent or criticism of its leaders.
Two weeks back, FTII students were arrested at midnight for peacefully protesting at the director’s office. As five of the student representatives were put in the police van, 150 students and at least 15 faculty members marched behind the van until the police station and remained there.
The next day, our seniors collected the bail money within a few minutes, while we struggled to get lawyers in order for the hearing to take place. The court was convinced that the accusations were not correct and allowed bail immediately. This only escalated our zeal, and we became firmer and more unified.
We wait for the ministry to answer us. To eradicate our fear and address our concerns.
The process of learning became more frequent, with screenings happening every day and artists coming daily, while some of the stalwarts of world cinema, like the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai and the Latvian director Laila Pakalnia, expressed their concerns and showed solidarity.
We wait for the ministry to answer us. To eradicate our fear and address our concerns. To not assassinate our characters or antagonise us, but to connect to us as a responsible democratic body.
The constant dichotomy of art and politics comes to a uniformity when the politics is devoid of any outside influence and becomes an organic policy working towards an egalitarian state. As the Supreme Court indicates that questioning the government is not anti-national—as our president states, “the answer might not be comfortable but the question must be raised”—we remain convinced that our voices have not come out of hooliganism.
As the Supreme Court indicates that questioning the government is not anti-national, we remain convinced that our voices have not come out of hooliganism.
We were at FTII because we believed in education. Education makes a collective.
We went on strike because we believed in enquiring. The urge to strike comes from individuality.
