New Delhi: The relevance of state funding in the realm of movie making is the subejct of debate in the ministry of Information and Broadcasing (I&B) following a student’s agitation to remove Gajendra Chauhan as the head of Film & Television Institute of India, which refuses to die down. 
The I&B ministry is even considering scrapping the Insitute or shifting ownership to Bollywood.39 strikes in its 55 years of existence, low hostel fees, and alleged financial irregularities are the other reasons for the move.
A report on the institute’s future is being prepared even as efforts to bring about a negotiated end to the agitation continued. A meeting between the student protestors and I&B Minister Arun Jaitley appears not to have led to a breakthrough.
The I&B report, prepared for Jaitley, says the average cost of education for an FTII student funded by the state is in excess of Rs 10 lakh per year. Also, the threeyear postgraduate diploma course usually takes 4-5 years to complete, with students living in hostels paying rent that was far below market rates. In many cases, students are said to be in arrears in their rent payments.
“This issue requires deep introspection on behalf of all concerned. In times of such fiscal stress the competing demands of more essential interventions on behalf of state in areas like primary education or health would or should have greater priority,” the report says. Further, the entire infrastructure expenditure of FTII within the five-year plan is Rs 80 crore with an annual nonplan expenditure of Rs 20 crore every year.
“But the recovery through fees/hostel rent has decreased from 25% in 2006-07 to as low as 11% in 2010-11,” the report says.
In the context, I&B ministry is relying on a report by the Expenditure Reforms Commission, appointed in 2000 and headed by former finance secretary KP Geethakrishnan, which had suggested handing over the institute to the film industry.
Ministry officials said they might soon be open to the idea of receiving proposals from the film industry if the deadlock between the ministry and students continues.
In the meanwhile, officials have been talking to FTII alumni to resolve the issue, even as several members of the FTII society such as Santosh Sivan, Jahnu Barua and Pallavi Joshi have written to the ministry seeking to work at the institute only after the deadlock is resolved.
Ministry sources said at the meeting with Jaitley on Friday, agitating students and alumni were given “their wish list on a platter”.
“The students were assured of complete academic freedom and total technological upgradation of the institute. The government wants to work with the students to develop FTII into an institute of excellence, but the students are not willing to listen,” an official said.
FTII students, however, said the meeting was “inconclusive and hollow”. “The promises were made, but there was no assurance that they will get through in the next session of Parliament. Our main concern is also the appointment of Sangh sympathisers such as Chauhan and four other people in the council. We won’t take back the protest till those appointments are taken back,” said Harishankar Nachimuthu, president of the FTII students’ association.
“We value the students and alumni of FTII, but there is no way the government will go back on its appointments. Who is in charge of administrative work should not concern the students as long their academic freedom is not being disturbed,” an official added.
