Pune: In what seems to be the fallout of trouble between students and management at Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), the latter has asked the former to take their approval before screening movie at Classroom Theatre (CRT).
The decision has not gone down well with the students who are questioning the logic behind such censorship, specially by bureacrats who are from non-movie background.
In a recent decision, the administration has decided that the students have to inform name of movie they are going to screen at CRT to them and then they will decide whether students can screen that movie at CRT or not.
This is bereft from the earlier system wherein the students had entire freedom to screen the movie of their choice.
Robin Joy, president of FTII students’ association, said, “FTII is a film institute where we study about film making. Classroom theatre is our classroom to learn about films. How can administration decide which movie we should watch or not? Registrar or director of the institute is bureaucrats and they do not have understanding of films. We do not understand how can they decide which film we should watch or not.”
A few students on the condition of anonymity said, “Before the students’ strike opposing appointment of Gajendra Chuahan, we had easy access of the class room theatre and that was open for all seven days. One of our students used to have keys of the CRT. After the strike, students screened film about the strike. That did not go down well with the administration and they handed over keys to the security. Later we had to take keys from security for film screening.”
He added, “after we organised the program for Ambedkar Jayanti that included screening of a couple of movies, administration sent a notice to students that we needed to give in writing about screening of the movie 48 hours in advance.”
Later at the end of the May, students asked permission for screening of movies based on Civil War in Sri Lanka based on Tamil Genocide. According to students, director intentionally did not give permission. But soon in the month of June, the administration came up with notice that students have to give name of the film to administration before the screening and administration will decide whether students can screen that movie at CRT or not. Manish Pal Singh, another FTII student, said, “Administration opposes nudity like content in the movie.”
Bhupendra Kainthola, director of the FTII, said, “We have made that rule so that students do not watch non certified films. Even though we have made that rule, there was no incident when we denied permission for screening.” However students accuse that the administration delays the permission so that we end up cancelling the screening.
Pratik Vatsa, filmmaker and ex student of FTII said, “I do not support the decision of administration. Freedom of students is the spirit of the campus and administration cannot take away that. Through screening of all kind of movies, students learn about films. This is not good decision.”
