On their 25th anniversary year, the New York Film Academy(NYFA) chose India to be the first campus in Asia because, says Kitty Koo, Director, NYFA Mumbai and Vice-President for South-East Asia, India is a ‘film country’.
“When you talk about Hollywood, what naturally follows is Bollywood. Indians are a big part of the film industry and they make more movies than anyone else in the world — over 3,000 films a year,” says Kitty, who was on a visit to Bengaluru to talk about the NYFA's Mumbai campus.
“Whether we will expand in India depends on how it goes with the Mumbai campus.”
As of now, the New York Film Academy’s newest campus in Mumbai (following the campuses in the US, Italy and Australia), offers three programmes — a four-week filmmaking workshop, a four-week acting for film workshop and an eight-week filmmaking programme.
“We might be able to introduce a four-week photography workshop and perhaps a one-week filmmaking workshop for teens,” points out Kitty.
“We are offering the same structure, same curriculum and same faculty as our US counterparts. Every aspect of the programme is the same. We try to keep everything original, the programme is just as intense. Students in the four-week programme have to make three film projects and those in the eight-week programme have to make five film projects.”
They are currently on their third batch (intake). Students also have the option of transferring to the American campuses for the long-term programmes, once they complete their programmes in Mumbai.
“We keep our classes small, we believe that in order to give students the kind of education they should have, we can't have a huge class because then there is no proper interaction with faculty. We restrict each class to 15 or 16 students.”The response from the Indian students in their American campuses, she shares, has also been strong, with a great blend of students with no film background, students who come from the film fraternity and those who are already working in the industry who come to upgrade their skills (such as Imran Khan and Kangana Ranawat).
“The oldest among them is 60 years old, he is an established cinematographer from Chennai and he did three programmes. We are also seeing a lot of female students — as writers, directors and cinematographers. I am happy to see this empowerment among women because India is still a strong male-dominated country. It is fabulous to see more female students who are interested in the other aspects of filmmaking, apart from acting.”
The academy she says is currently keeping an eye out for a young Indian student who finished the eight-week filmmaking programme.
“His final film had a European touch. You could tell that he had put a lot into the film, into each of his shots. It was extraordinary. We think he has great potential.”Indian students observes Kitty, are highly talented.
“They just need an opportunity to be groomed and given tools to help them make the film they want. We guide students on how they can make their film but the ideas and the concepts are theirs. We also teach them all the other aspects of collaboration in the industry such as punctuality and the importance of finding ways to work on set with people they don't personally like.”
At the same time, they do not offer placements because they feel that anybody in the art field cannot really be placed.
“You need to be able to show for yourself what you can do in a film. If you are an actor you need to be able to emote when the director calls for action. Even if you study, if you are not a good actor, you will remain bad actor. It doesn't matter where you come from,” she explains.
“We tell students that the most important thing is to equip themselves with tools that will allow them to get into the industry and stand out from the rest. There would be hundreds of actors casting for a role.
If you have the talent and you are different from the rest, you can bring more to the table. People will hire you when you bring something to the project.”
