28 Saal Baad

However, whether stardom smiles on them or not, fate certainly has. For these chosen 18 faces haverelaunchedthe actingcourseinFTII afteragap of26longyears. Andwhentheywalk outof itshallowedportalsnext month,itwillbe after 28 years that the FTII will once again wit- ness the completion of the course that had at one time been its most visible face.

This is the course that produced stars like Vinod Khanna batch of 1973, Shatrughan Sinha 1967, Jaya Bhaduri 1970 and Danny Denzongpa also 1970. Its alumni Naseerud- din Shah 1975, Om Puri 1976 and Shabana Azmi 1973 were three of the four actors who formed the fulcrum of the entire parallel cin- ema movement of the 1970s and 1980s the fourth, the late Smita Patil, was not an FTII alumnus. Navin Nischol 1968 was one of the ruling romatic heroes of the early 1970s, while Rehana Sultan 1966 was one of the first In- dianactressesto boldlyexploretheboundaries of the Indian woman8217;s sexuality in films like Chetna1970 and Dastak1970.

Asrani 1965, ZareenaWahab 1973, Kan- waljeet1973, RanjeetaKaur1974 andSuresh Oberoi 1977 have all had their places in the limelight. And one alumnus of this acting course, who graduated in 1965, acted in a few films, foundhistruecallingasadirector, andhas gone on to become one of the most successful producer-directors of the Hindi film industry ever. Onespeaks, ofcourse, ofSubhashGhai.

So why was the acting course discontinued? Strife,strikesandsituations createdattheinsti- tute, apparently by a series of acting batches, led the government to disband the course 8220;till such time that problems are resolved8221;, says Tripurari Sharan, director, quoting from the original order.

The time taken turned out to be 26 years. And when the institute finally did open its door once again to all the aspiring actors in the country, there was a deluge of applications, out of which20werefinally selectedforthehistoric batch of 2006.

More importantly, what was put in place was a completely restructured course and for- mat to ensure that past mistakes are not re- peated. 8220;The main problem with the acting batches earlier was that they had developed this whole attitude about themselves. They rarely mixed with students from other courses, leading to the creation of an institute within an institute,8221; says Ravi Baswani, who took over as the head of the new acting course in May 2004 and helped compile the new syllabus.

What was thus devised was a system of checks and balances that included an inte- grated course for the first six months to ensure that the acting batch mixed freely with those from editing, direction, script writing and so on.8220;Also an acting course student had to com- pulsorily share his/her hostel room with a stu- dent from a course other than acting, so that there areno ghettos,8221; adds Sharan.

The mentors also ensured the students stayed away from media attention and the public eye right from the beginning, to obviate any chances of them developing starry airs while on campus. All this was packed with an exactingschedulethat basicallyleftthestudent with very little time to do anything outside the laid down format.

But the ploy, it seems, worked. For other than minor hiccups like the sending home of two students after the first year when they failed to measure up and the changing of the acting head mid-way from Baswani to comedian Paintal, the course went off by and large as scripted.

And today as the chosen 18 scramble to get together their portfolios consisting of the audi- tions, plays and short films done on campus, equipped with which they will soon start mak- ing the rounds of producers8217; offices, they seem rooted to the ground realities of showbiz. 8220;The most important thing that we learnt here was the language of films. We now know the hardships faced by a cameraman or a director and also the fact that at the end of the day they can make or break an ac-tor,8221; says Faisal Rashid from Kash-mir who has a theatre background and worked as an assistant direc-tor for a feature film in Mumbai before joining FTII. And if Alok Chaturvedi from Allahabad is looking at becoming an actor and not a star, Chaurhas Tiwari of Bhopal, who has worked with the-atre greats like B.V. Karanth and M.K. Raina, wants to make nega-tive roles his forte.

Then there is also Aseem Hat-tangady, son of well-established actor Rohini Hattangady, who agrees that he could have sailed into Bollywood courtesy his genes but decided to take the FTII route 8220;to gather technical knowledge about all aspects of films and basi-cally grow up as a human being, which is what has happened with the interaction with other stu-dents and exposure to good cin-ema and literature here.8221;

Lounging under the famed Wisdom Tree on campus, all are however unanimous on the two most precious memories of the course. One was honing their skill through a series of workshops held by people like Naseeruddin Shah, Subhash Ghai, Tom Alter, Benjamin Gilani, Chandraprakash Dwivedi and Raza Murad. The second was the recent staging of Maxim Gorky8217;s Lower Depths or Taldhar, directed by Ram Gopal Bajaj, former director, National School of Drama. 8220;The play was like the test of all that the students had learnt and absorbed in their two years. And they passed it with flying colours,8221; beams a proud Paintal, who is now organising two shows in Mumbai exclusively for the film industry. 8220;This is the best platform my students can get to showcase their talent. Everyone from Shah Rukh Khan to Sanjay Leela Bhansali have been invited.

Alumni like Subhash Ghai and Jaya Bachchan have already agreed to help the youngsters find their feet in the industry.8221; Two telefilms starring the stu- dents are also in their final stages which, says Paintal, will be an im-portant part of their resumes. 8220;De-spite all this, the students are ma-ture and prepared for the fact that their real struggle begins now8212;be it in films, theatre or television.

They have to do the grind, but their sound training at the insti-tute should see them through and make them stand apart,8221; he adds. Some have already struck it lucky. Like K.P. Nishan from Coorg, who has bagged a five-year contract with a Bollywood direc-tor, and Swati Sengupta from Bi-har, who is already shooting for a Bhojpuri film.

But for the rest, their close en-counter with the reel world begins now. So, lights, camera, action.