Eminent filmmaker Shekhar Kapur was on Tuesday appointed as the new president of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society and the chairman of the governing council, which runs the country’s most prestigious film school in Pune.
Mr. Kapur (74), known for such acclaimed films like Bandit Queen (1994) and historical biopics Queen Elizabeth (1998 and 2007), will hold the post till March 3, 2023, said the FTII management in a statement.
The tenure of the earlier members of the FTII Society had ended in March 2020. The other members of the GC are to be appointed soon, said a senior FTII authority.
Mr. Kapur replaces filmmaker B.P. Singh who has been nominated to the general assembly of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations. Mr. Singh will hold his new tenure till July 2023.
Mr. Singh, an FTII alumnus of the 1970 batch, who was known as the creator of the popular television series CID , had taken over from Bollywood actor Anupam Kher in December 2018.
Mr. Kher, who had stepped down after barely completing a year of his tenure, had cited his pressing schedule as the reason for quitting while remarking that he could not devote much time to the institute owing to his international assignments.
Mr. Singh had been appointed as chairman of the Institute’ s Academic Council (AC) in 2016 in a move to blunt the students’ resentment against the I&B Ministry’s controversial appointment of TV actor Gajendra Chauhan as FTII Chairman of the GC, making it the first instance in the institution’s history since its inception in 1961 where the chairman was not head of both the AC and the GC.
Earlier, the institute had declared the results of its entrance test, while online classes and training courses have been continuing during the pandemic months.