When the screen goes blank

The recent drastic changes in the syllabus and course structure of India's premier film training institute, the Film and Television Instit...

The recent drastic changes in the syllabus and course structure of India8217;s premier film training institute, the Film and Television Institute of India FTII, are diluting the cause it stood for. At stake is its very ethos. The changes are so fundamental that they are no longer peripheral to the constitution of the institute, but hit at the right to free expression. The institute is today being viewed by decision making authorities as an industry for generating profits rather than as a centre of learning. If the changes are not immediately halted, the country will lose forever the only training ground for people committed to meaningful cinema.

Set up in 1961 with the aim of promoting good alternate cinema and setting new standards in film making, both aesthetically and technically, the institute has provided free space for thinking and learning to generations of would-be filmmakers. It has provided the film industry with highly focused and specialised professionals. Along with the National Film Archives of India NFAI, the Films Division and the National Film Development Corporation NFDC, FTII has been one of the pillars for promoting a plurality of voices via the medium of cinema.

Today, unfortunately, all these organisations are in a state of decay and their achievements stand questioned not on any grounds of excellence or competence but on commercial considerations. The latest proposals of Iamp;B ministry aim at dissolving its bodies, namely the NFDC, FD, FTII and NFAI. Only the Censor Board is being spared the axe! Should the state wash its hands off them because it fails to see their profits in terms of artistic endeavour? Should these institutes be wiped out simply because they could not become money making machines?

Students who come to FTII are inclined towards a comprehensive and complete understanding of the medium, and any attempt to curtail that is bound to generate discontent. Thus, there has been a history of student protest at every stage of dilution and decay. This has been used and vociferously highlighted by authorities to vilify the agitating students without going into the cause of these discontent. So much so that the recent changes stem from a desire to control students.

In 1996, a new syllabus called the Revised Syllabus8217; was prepared by a committee comprising of outside experts, practising professionals, faculty and the students. It was a much-needed improvement on the existing syllabus and provided for increased inputs from visiting professionals. After hanging in suspension for three years, it was unceremoniously shelved. Instead, a new course has been implemented with the new batch that started in February this year after three zero semesters during which no admissions were done on the pretext of working out the logistics of implementing a new syllabus.

Among the changes suggested, are the following: Three individual courses of one-year duration each will replace the integrated three-year diploma. There will be the elimination of students at each yearly stage and a doubling of the intake of students from the earlier 40, without increasing the budget. Fees are to be hiked by ten times with provision for further increase at regular intervals. Besides, students don8217;t decide on the area of their specialisation. It will depend on the availability of seats in the second year and on the teacher8217;s recommendations.

These measures seem far removed from any pedagogic reasons. They seem only aimed at stifling the spirit of questioning. The complete shift from theaesthetics of cinema to its technical and operational requirements leaves students without the competence to make a mark on the artistic concerns of his times. The current fee ensures only a particular kind of student largely metropolitan can have access to the training. This will, in the long run, even define what kind of films get made in the country.

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Shouldn8217;t we pause for a minute and ask ourselves what the restructuring of a premier institution like the FTII really means. Couldn8217;t it mean the glossing over of cultural complexities in a multifarious society like ours?

This piece was sent in by students at the FTII, Pune