Filmmakers, students, activists and common people came together at the Manaveeyam Veethi on Sunday afternoon in protest against the NDA government’s appointment of serial actor Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.
Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, an alumni and former chairman of the FTII, said that if the protests fail to have any effect, the next step would be to move legally as this appointment is against the institution’s constitution. “FTII alumni have played their part in the positive changes that have happened in the Indian film industry in the past 50 years. This is the first time that we had the misfortune of asking ‘who’, when we heard the new chairman’s name. This is a huge mistake and should be opposed at all costs,” said Mr. Adoor.