Bangalore joins Pune's FTII protest

Anjali.Muthanna@timesgroup.com
September 19 marked 100 days since the students at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune went on strike to protest the appointment of actor-turned-politician Gajendra Chauhan as the institute’s chairman. And in order to show solidarity with the students of FTII, a collective comprising Bengaluru’s student, film and art community, came together to mark the 100th day of the strike by hosting several events — an all-day hunger strike and screenings of films by FTII organized by students of St Joseph’s College of Arts and Science (SJCAS), an art show by students of Chitra Kala Parishath and Ken School of Art, and a protest at Town Hall.The idea to showcase their support on such a large scale, says Ashreya G Nath — a first-year student of visual communication at SJCAS and a member of the college’s film club Rushes — was to generate awareness about the issue among fellow students. “We asked people in college if they could sign a petition that we wanted to send to show our support of the cause and found that many people didn’t even know what FTII was, let alone what the students were protesting. It’s important to bring this issue to people’s attention because the students should have a say in who their chairman is,” says Ashreya. FTII graduate and Kannada filmmaker Abhaya Simha agrees with Ashreya. “We may not be physically present in Pune, but whatever happens in FTII affects our film culture. There are two kinds of censorship — censoring a piece of art, and telling people that they can’t produce the kind of art they want to in the first place. It is this kind of pre-censorship that is the protest is about,” he says. Other films made by FTII students have been screened at several venues in the city over the past few weeks, courtesy organizations supporting the institution’s cause. Ekta Mittal from Maraa, a media and arts collective that is part of the cause, says they now want to use the momentum from this movement to spearhead other student campaigns in Bengaluru. “We want students to have conversations about their own campuses and talk more about the issues they face because there isn’t a strong student movement in Bengaluru. The idea has also been to make people alert and ask questions, and the FTII strike has been a very important marker in this resistance,” she says.