After stints as cameraman in Hollywood and French cinema, M. Madhu Thiagarajan is now giving back to the medium.
Mr. Thiagarajan, a Franco-Tamil who is founder-president of the not-for-profit Franco Indian Film Society (FIFS) based in Arles, a city in the Provence region of southern France, is giving shape to his ambition of establishing a world-class film school in collaboration with Indian universities.
“We envision graduates from our courses to be equipped to become professionals across the spectrum of film-making functions in film industries anywhere in the world,” Mr. Thayagarajan said.
As a first step, he has recently established a Franco-India School of Cinema and Television Mysuru (FISCTM) under University of Mysuru.
“We did not want this institution to be a mere incremental addition to the existing landscape of 40 plus film schools in the country and this is why we chose to tie up with a university,” Mr. Thyagarajan said.
The Franco-Indian School of Cinema and Television Mysuru (FISCTM) will come up on an 18-acre site at the University of Mysore, coupling state-of-the-art infrastructure with the ambience of a mini film city.
31 courses on offer
According to Mr. Thyagarajan, FISCTM will have 31 courses, including cinematography, script writing and editing, direction, sound engineering, costume designing, dance, choreography, lighting and many more. The curriculum will be designed, developed and delivered by European and Indian faculty. It will offer certificate, diplomas, undergraduate degree, Master’s degree and PhD programmes, which will be accredited by UoM.
“We have roped in masters in their respective domains in Hollywood and European cinema to shape the syllabi,” he said.
The foundation stone for FISCTM was laid by vice-chancellor K.S. Rangappa and Indologist from France, Dr Tara Michael, at B.N. Bahadur Institute of Management Sciences in Mysuru.
The first batch is expected to commence from the 2017-18 academic year.
This collaborative effort, he feels, will make a difference in promoting new generation school in the celluloid industry. The student community, passed out from FISCTM, can compete in international platform and as well as placed in the best companies across the world.
All students welcome
Admission to FISCTM school will be open for students from anywhere in the world.
Mr. Thyagarajan, who hails from Vandipalayam near here, had a passion for photography since childhood. At the age of 18, this passion took him all the way to Siegen in Germany to pursue a course in Photography and Film Studies on a scholarship.
It was in France that he mastered B.T.S. (Brevet Technicien Supérieur) at the “École Supérieure des Techniques du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel”, Paris. In 1992, Mr. Thyagarajan got the opportunity to work in a film directed by George Lautner, featuring the French icon Jean Paul Belmondo.
That opened the door for many more projects with accomplished filmmakers in France and elsewhere as well as American, Canadian and Italian productions. “The film school in Mysuru is only the beginning....we have plans to open similar schools in other cities,” said Mr. Thyagarajan, a cinematography award winner (1993) for the short film “Monologue dans le Noir” featuring in its cast prominent French actors Madeline Barbulee and Jacques Debary.
The FIFS will continue to develop perspectives on the "seventh art" (as cinema is regarded) between France (and other European or Francophone countries) and India, and reinforce exchanges and bilateral links between the cinematographic industries of these countries, says Mr. Thyagarajan. In parallel, he is also preparing a crossover feature film “The Goddess of the frontier” shortly for a worldwide audience.
