Bollywood doesn't need FTII, Indian cinema does
The prolonged student strike in the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune will probably take an existential detour sooner than later. Instead of taking the easier, and perhaps the more sensible option of resolving the impasse, which is to ask for the resignation of Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the governing council of the FTII and reconstituting the council with members of impeccable credentials and vision, the ministry of information and broadcasting has chosen to take a hard stand and defend the indefensible. Already voices in social media are tarnishing the FTII as a den of dilletantes and troublemakers, and questioning the very need for such an elitist institute to exist and be supported by tax payers’ money. One supporter with a formidable corporate lineage tweeted recently that the government should stop funding the FTII and that it should be closed down. Another right wing columnist spoke about the FTII and other such institutes of higher learning being infested with Congress and left wing ideologues. He wrote with evangelical zeal: "The BJP should, on the other hand, create a new institution manned by the right kind of academics and intellectuals who are friendly to its way of thinking, or at least not inimical to it... If the BJP can create a better and more prestigious institution outside the state's area of patronage, it will endure and create something powerful. Trying to tinker with a state-run FTII will yield no benefit, especially once it loses power."
Even if these voices have the familiarity of loony fringe elements, you can ignore them at your peril. There is much anecdotal evidence to show that the government is willing to cut its nose to spite its face.
Ironically, the relevance of the FTII and National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), along with other cultural institutions which need government subsidies has been questioned even during United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. The UPA, despite the infamy that it had Congressified these bodies, was no great champion of independent art, culture and meaningful cinema. The greatest danger to FTII and NFDC-like bodies comes from within the ecosystem of an uncaring media and populism. The prevailing yardstick for success of most cinematic work in India is measured today by its membership to the Rs 100-crore, Rs 200-crore or Rs 300-crore club. Bollywood is alive and vibrant as never before.
The tyranny of market forces does not care for great art or cultural heritage, unless it brings a healthy return on investment.
Bollywood does not need or care for an instituion like the FTII. Independent cinema, on the other hand, needs innovative storytelling. Its films must reflect a deep intuitive concern for Indian society, its themes must give a compulsive voice to the marginalised, capture the angst and lay out a guide for survival, amidst India's million mutinies. These films must showcase the poetry of loss and longing conflictiing with the idiom of modern sensibilities. Above all, they must be true to the linguistic and cultural diversity of India.
The FTII, therefore, is not just a training ground for the craft of this kind of cinema. It is an incubator to provide students an exposure to new themes, ideas, style of treatment and technique.
There is much that needs repairing at the FTII, from bolstering its faculty, to bringing in, as resident masters, some of the great fimmakers from around the world. All this can be achieved if there is political will. If the ministry of information and broadcasting agrees to give the institute the autonomy it deserves. And a governing council which reflects this mandate.
But the current battle is not so much about creating a seat of learning of excellence - it is more about capturing and shaping young minds to reflect a certain kind of ideology. The irony is that filmmakers are by nature anarchic. They are anti-establishment. The best of world cinema, which is part of any film curriculum, reinforces these liberal values. Unless of course you ban all these films and incessantly screen only two right wing, bigoted masterpieces of world cinema - DW Griffith's The Birth of a Nation and Leni Reifenstahl's classic The Triumph of the Will.