Why Gajendra Chauhan won FTII war and Pahlaj Nihalani lost to films

Nearly six months after appointment, Gajendra Chauhan will quietly move in as chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on December 18. The timing of his taking charge was apparently decided after some brainstorming. The date, reports say, had to be after International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa ended on November 30 so that protesting FTII students don't have any major government-sponsored film event to jeopardise.

Even as Chauhan settles into his cushy chair, talk has been rife that Pahlaj Nihalani will be booted as chief of Central Board of Film Certification. Like Chauhan, Nihalani has lately emerged one of Indian film scene's most resented names. His wayward censorial excesses have drawn everything from witty memes on social media to scathing intellectual ire in comment columns.

If ever there was a Bollywood award for Newsmaker of the Year for Wrong Reasons, these two gents would have jointly won it hands down. Anyone with a basic knowhow of Indian cinema would be aware Chauhan is grossly incompetent to head a prestigious organisation as FTII. An actor of little or no standing, he drew vehement FTII students' protest that was backed sizeably by the film fraternity as well as social media. The agitation that started at the Pune based institute hit the shores of Goa during IFFI in November, with demonstrations threatening to hijack the festival.

Yet the stir against Chauhan fizzled out, with students ending their 139-day strike and agreeing to return to classes under his administration. This, even as Nihalani is probably looking to wind up at office.

Where did Chauhan find an escape that Nihalani fail? The first reason is attitude. Powers that be who appointed Chauhan and Nihalani (for whatever agenda) couldn't care less about protests. The difference lies in the manner in which Chauhan and Nihalani reacted to the objections coming their way.

Chauhan mostly preferred lying low till it all blew away. Nihalani took to arrogance. Belligerent response in the media is never the solution while handling criticism, and Nihalani exuded such a trait even as he haughtily declared during a television interview that he had not even seen Spectre, the Bond film that got him into a storm after he advocated debatable cuts in it.

Worse, Censor Board colleagues turned against Nihalani for his high-handedness. Several members have spoken in the press how he would take unilateral decisions, not consulting them often enough.

But Nihalani's death blow probably sprung from the arrogance that he could get away making a tacky music video to tout achievements of the very government that propped him. When you pass off visuals of NASA's Atlantis space shuttle (with the NASA logo showing), a Dubai expressway and a US Tomcat aircraft as mascots of India's accomplishments, the joke is on you. Nihalani and his video have been the butt of mockery in cyberspace for weeks.

Of course, the people they had to fend against also made a difference. An FTII appointment affects the students of one institute. A censor chief's decisions hamper the filmmaking experience of an entire nation. Nihalani should have known.