Ten prominent filmmakers take up battle against Gajendra Chauhan and return their awards even as FTII students call off their 139-day strike .
Mumbai : In a dramatic development, a group of prominent filmmakers have taken up the battle against controversial chairman of Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India Gajendra Chauhan and returned their awards to the government, even as the students of the institute called off their 139 day old strike. The ten filmmakers who returned their awards “in support of the students” include directors Dibakar Bannerjee (Khosla ka Ghosla) and Harshwardhan Kulkarni (Hunterr), documentary filmmakers Anand Patwardhan (Jai Bhim Comrade), Rakesh Sharma (Final Solution) and Nishtha Jain (Gulaabi Gang) and Editor Kirti Nakhwa (Hunterr).
“As filmmakers we stand firmly with the students of FTII and are determined to not let them shoulder the entire burden of their protests. They have mounted a historic struggle and we urge others within our fraternity to come forward and carry this protest forward,” a memorandum signed by the filmmakers said. However, in a letter to the President and the Prime Minister the filmmakers cited the murders of rationalists and writers like Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and M M Kalburgi as a reason for returning their awards. “We are disenchanted with what is happening in the country,” Patwardhan said. The development came on the heels of three prominent alumni of the FTII — Vikrant Pawar, Rakesh Shukla and Prateek Vats — announcing that they would return their national awards in protest against “an atmosphere of intolerance” in the country. Now the issue has “gone beyond FTII” and is affecting the entire education system of the country, right from the primary school level, which is being changed without taking into account aspects which concern the society at large, Pawar said while announcing their decision. Earlier in the day, the FTII students called off their strike. According to sources close to the government, a sense of loss of face and the growing rift among the students forced them to call off their strike.
The students’ leaders however maintained that they would take their battle forward after returning to academic work. “We are calling off the strike as a collective decision in the best interests of the students, who need to return to academics immediately. However, we will continue to demand the resolution of the appointments issue,” said FTII Students’ Association representative Vikas Urs. A source said that while Chauhan will continue as Chairman the other three members of the FTII Governing Council – actor Rahul Solapurkar, director Anagha Ghaisas and ABVP activist Narendra Pathak – might be asked to quit. This is the price they will pay for keeping Chauhan, a BJP member, in the saddle. Pathak however denied having received any instructions in this regard so far. “The students have withdrawn their strike without any condition. We expect the Governing Council meeting would be called soon – before Diwali – and the formal work will begin,” Pathak said.
A few FTII alumni like director Aruna Raje, film editor Jabin Merchant and cinematographer Anil Mehta, in association with state BJP spokesperson Madhav Bhandari, persuaded the agitating students to have negotiations with the government on their demands. This finally led to them finally backing off. The firm stand taken by senior film makers like Shyam Benegal and Mahesh Bhatt, who were against the agitation, also pressurised the students. Bhandari told the students on behalf of the government that he understood their grievances and that he was in favour of some reforms in the FTII administration. “We simply told them that they could not achieve anything by boycotting classes. Most of the students were already in a double mind.’’ Meanwhile, Urs has assured that their protest against the small-time TV actor Gajendra Chauhan, when he assumes charge of the office, will be peaceful. “The right wing attitude of the government is now exposed. The students will not engage proactively with the ministry till the appointments issue is resolved,” he said, adding that their experiences with the government will reflect in their art work and films.
