London: This was an official appointment which divided showbiz into the iconic rival Kaurav and Pandav fighting it out at the battlefield in Kurukshetra. Films and Television Institute of India (FTII) has never been so much in news as it is now.
All of a sudden actor Gajendra Chauhan, whose only memorable contribution to the entertainment world is playing Yudhistir in BR Chopra’s TV show 'Mahabharat', became a hot property.
The actor popped out on various news channels to defend his body of work, consisting of 700 film in various regional language including two salacious movies 'Khuli Khidki' and 'Jungle Love'.
With a diploma in radiology obtained from AIIMS, New Delhi, Gajendra Chauhan’s appointment by the Ministry of Information and Broadcast has led to an unprecedented furor which has divided the industry into two.
One group that has found Chauhan unfit for the role felt his body of work made him unsuitable for the post while the other group sided with Chauhan, demanding to give him a fair chance.
Interesting part of the entire controversy was that everyone spoke their mind. Members of the fraternity including new age superstar Ranbir Kapoor refrained from being politically correct. Film industry which largely believes in playing safe and prefers to maintain ‘no comment’ policy whole heartedly came forward to oppose the appointment. Last we saw Salman Khan and Aamir Khan protesting was when Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh made jokes on their sister Arpita at AIB Roast, last year.
“All they (students) require is an inspirational figure to look up to, someone with a large body of work,” said Kapoor, who was joined by his dad Rishi Kapoor venting his thoughts on Twitter. “If they don’t want you, they don’t want you,” tweeted Rishi.
“Aap please chup kar jaye (please keep quiet and back out),” said Anupam Kher during a heated debate on a TV show questioning his knowledge on world cinema. Kher was supported by giggling members of the panel. Former chairman Adoor Gopalakrishnan stressed at how Chauhan’s work “speaks of neither his qualifications nor for any vision which could justify his appointment.”
Congress spokesperson and actor Raj Babbar equated Chauhan to an office attendant. “By that logic, you can appoint a chaprasi (office attendant) as the principal of a school because he can devote a lot of time!” said Babbar in an interview to a news channel.
Veteran character actor Paintal and national award winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta, were only two prominent film personalities besides of course Minister of State Information & Broadcast, Rajyavardhan Rathore, who came forward in support of Chauhan. A friend of Chauhan, Paintal, came to show is solidarity towards Chauhan but could barely mumble at the panel discussion on Arnab’s show.
Hansal Mehta, on the other hand, wrote an open letter to the students. Laced with sarcasm and caustic remarks, the letter referred Jhanu Barua, Santosh Sivan and Pallavi Joshi as ‘losers’. Taking a dig at the senior members of the FTII, Hansal said that they “were pretending to be inspired by the likes of De Sica, Truffaut, Goddard, Tarkovsky, Fellini, Ray.” And regarding Chauhan’s knowledge of world cinema, he said that “He (Chauhan) reserves his comments on world cinema. Perhaps, he is afraid that his critical insights into world cinema might lead to unrest between nations.”
The astute members of film fraternity are up in the arms and are clearly fighting for the students. But, the students seem to be in no hurry to go back to their classes. With a notorious history of going on a strike on slightest provocation, the students were given stern warning by the director D J Narain to join the classes or face rustication, on Wednesday.
This is not the first time that the students have gone on a strike. In 1991, there was a 100-day protest, while in 1996, during the chairmanship of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, the students went on strike to protest against the changed syllabus.
To put an end to the increasing unrest and mudslinging, students must follow filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s suggestion. Former chairman of the Institute has asked the students to have a discussion with Chauhan to sort things out. May be that can bring them to an amicable decision.
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