FTII’s Act II Picking up

Explaining this phenomenon,Pitobash Tripathy,whose character of Mandook in Shor in the City was highly appreiciated,says,“Since the course restarted after a long time,the students who passed out in 2006 and 2007 faced a lot of issues that needed to be sorted. Moreover,the courses also didn’t finish in time. So technically speaking,it was not before 2008 that these students landed in Mumbai and started their struggle.”

Landing in Mumbai is not the end of the struggle; the difficult part is landing a role. “That is where the struggle begins. Visiting producers and directors,appearing for auditions and facing rejections — it may take them an year to get noticed. Of course,the FTII’s brand name helps but only to get into an audition. After that,each one stands for himself,” he adds.

DJ Narain director FTII says,“The difference also lies in the teaching. The students during their two year tenure are also exposed to various aspects of World Cinema,and different acting styles. In addition they also work on the other aspects of film making namely,direction,cinematography and editing. Hence they have a more complete and well formed idea about the craft of film making. As a part of their syllabus,they also have to make a diploma film and stage a play. All this helps them to become better actors when they go to the industry to work.”

Rajkumar Yadav,who played important roles in movies such as Love,Sex and Dhoka and Ragini MMS,adds an interesting dimension to it. “There is another reason why these graduate actors take longer to find work as compared to students from other technical courses. For example,passouts from the sound,editing,direction or cinematography courses can intern and assist even while they are studying but actors like us start from scratch when we come to Mumbai.”

All said and done,the list of actors who have made it big in the recent past is not small. Anurag Sinha bagged the lead role in Subhash Ghai’s Black and White. Tirttha Murbaadkar won the prestigious Nandi award for the film Sontha Voorja (Native Village),while Swati Sen acted in award-winning films such as Udedh Bun (Beloved) and Antardwand. Megh Pant acted in the 2007 critically acclaimed film No Smoking. The list is actually huge.

Sinha says getting a foothold in the industry doesn’t happen overnight. “The entire process of bagging a role in a film takes anywhere between six months to two years,” he says.

Divyendu Sharma,who character of ‘Liquid’ in the surprise hit Pyaar Ka Punchnama was widely appreciated,says,”First of all,the Mumbai film industry is very disorganised. So,understanding the way it functions takes time. Secondly,the actors from FTII think and question before they say yes to a project. Hence,it takes us time in getting established.”