Protests over ‘Modi’s choice’ at renowned India film school

NEW DELHI // India’s premier filmmaking school has turned into a battleground, as students and alumni decry the choice of their new chairman, labelling him a political appointee by prime minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Students at the state-run Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) have been on strike since June 12, to protest the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan three days earlier.

Chauhan, a 58-year-old actor, is also a member of Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

But students have protested that Chauhan is underqualified to run FTII. “There are so many eminent personalities who could have been chosen for the post,” said Harishankar Nachimuthu, the president of the FTII students’ association.

Ever since its establishment in 1960, FTII has been regarded by the international film industry as a prestigious, high-calibre institute for filmmakers. Among its past faculty were Oscar-winners such as David Lean and Satyajit Ray, while its past chairmen have included writers Girish Karnad and UR Ananthamurthy, the cartoonist RK Laxman, and the director Mrinal Sen.

The choice of Chauhan has met with protest not only because of his limited credentials but also because the appointment of a BJP member is seen as the intrusion of Hindu nationalist politics into a cultural institution.

“While we have nothing against any party, we cannot accept this appointment on creative grounds,” Mr Nachimuthu said.

The BJP’s critics have identified a wider trend of Hindu nationalist politics infiltrating India’s cultural and academic spheres since the party swept to power last May. They point to several examples of BJP members being appointed to non-political positions within these fields, including to the country’s censorship board, the Lalit Kala Akademi (a national arts institute), the National Museum, and the Indian council of historical research.

Chauhan, who replaces the acclaimed director Saeed Mirza, most memorably acted as Yudhishthira in the television series Mahabharat, based on the Hindu epic of the same name.

Mahabharat aired between 1988 and 1990 on the state-run television channel Doordarshan.

It was phenomenally successful, so much so that the streets of Indian towns and cities would be deserted on Sunday mornings because everybody was indoors watching Mahabharat.

Apart from this, however, Chauhan’s acting career is unremarkable. He has had small roles in largely inconsequential movies and television shows, and has no experience in directing and production.

In contrast, the candidates over whom Chauhan was chosen had a wealth of experience and renown.

They include the veteran actors Amitabh Bachchan and Anupam Kher; and the critically acclaimed directors Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.

In tandem with Chauhan’s appointment, the FTII’s governing council has also been recast to include four new members with little valuable film experience but with strong ties to the BJP or to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the BJP’s ideological parent.

In protest, last Friday, three prominent members of the council – filmmakers Santosh Sivan and Jahnu Barua, and actress Pallavi Joshi – resigned. Barua has called Chauhan’s appointment “a matter of concern” and said that FTII should be “headed by a stalwart”.

Chauhan has said that he is prepared to prove himself. “Please give me a chance. Let me work. My only agenda will be the betterment of FTII,” he said in a television interview soon after his appointment.

The government has also defended its choice of Chauhan.

“The government wanted the [FTII’s] governing council, including the chairman, to be people who could commit time for the development of the institute,” Rajyavardian Singh Rathore, the junior minister for information and broadcasting, said on July 10.

But at FTII, the signs of protest are everywhere.

For a while, the slogans “Strike down Fascism” and “Gajendra Resign & Leave” were spray-painted at the entrance to the institute. Elsewhere, students have constructed a mock-cemetery, with tombstones labelled film, music, painting, drama and freedom of expression.

And several of Bollywood’s most prominent personalities have supported the students in this face-off.

“This post demands creativity,” Nawazuddin Siddiqui, an actor hailed for his natural performances, told India Today magazine on July 9. “There are people who are far more efficient. The track record of the person being appointed on the post must be checked.”

FTII’s list of notable alumni is long and rich, including actors such as Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi, directors like Mani Kaul and Prakash Jha, and technicians like the Oscar-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty.

But the institute has been troubled in recent years by a lack of faculty and equipment. Many students stay on beyond their two or three-year course terms to finish up work, resulting in a mismatch between people and resources.

Right now, 400 students on campus are vying for resources that can serve about 130 people currently enrolled.

Still, it was FTII’s reputation for academic excellence that inspired Karthik Varma, a 28-year-old copywriter and sound engineer who is applying for admission this year.

Mr Varma said he was not unduly worried about Chauhan’s association with the BJP or the RSS.

“Once you get into the syllabus, it really makes no difference unless this guy is going to make students study the Mahabharat television show, actively censor their work, or create restrictions,” he said.

Instead, he is worried that FTII may postpone incoming admissions for the upcoming academic year because of the ongoing controversy.

But C Chakravarthi, who studied television directing and graduated in 2011, said that Chauhan’s appointment was “absolutely ridiculous”.

“A chairman has to have some sort of cultural understanding about what’s going on there,” Mr Chakravarthi said.

“Even the council is being filled with people loyal to Modi and his party ... I’d be very worried about how much the BJP will control the entire institute.”

ssubramanian@thenational.ae