In a move that ignited hopes of an early resolution to the crisis facing the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), senior Indian Information Service (IIS) officer and Pune’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) head Prashant Pathrabe has been given additional charge as Director of FTII.
A 1992 batch IIS officer and former head of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), Pathrabe replaces FTII’s incumbent director D J Narain, whose tenure is ending this week.
The Centre made an announcement about Pathrabe’s appointment as the FTII’s new director on a day when the strike by the students demanding the revocation of television actor Gajendra Chauhan’s nomination as the institute’s chairman entered 36th day.
Coming as it does within days after Narain had ticked off the agitating students through a strongly-worded notice asking them to either call off their strike forthwith or face administrative action in the form of a possible “rustication”, Pathrabe’s appointment as the FTII’s new Director may come in handy in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in dealing with the crisis facing the prestigious film institute.
Outgoing FTII’s director DJ Narain, an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, had taken over as the film institute’s director in July 2011 and was given a year’s extension in July 2014.
An alumnus of IIM-Ahmedabad, Pathrabe was Director of the Press Information Bureau in Pune before taking over as Director, NFAI in February 2011. After his stint with the NFAI, he returned to PIB, Pune.
Talking to mediapersons at Pune after being handed the additional charge as the FTII’s new Director, Pathrabe disclosed that he had already interacted with the agitating students informally and would take forward the deliberations with the student leaders at an official level from now.
“I have earlier interacted with FTII students from outside. let me first study the situation will first study the situation and speak to all concerned. The situation is not a happy one but we are hopeful of a positive outcome. “I will do my best to resolve the issue,” Pathrabe said.
When his attention was drawn to notice served on the agitating students by his predecessor Narain on Wednesday last, Pathrabe said: “It was meant to be a statutory warning. There is not timeline (for action)”.
The notice served on them by the FTII's outgoing director notwithstanding, the students have decided to continue on with their strike demanding the immediate revocation of Chauhan's appointment as the institute's chairman and the dissolution of its governing council.
Meanwhile, sources in the FTII said that its Registrar U.C. Bodake had written to the I&B Ministry complaining about the students' "increasing indiscipline" on the campus in recent years that has dented the institute's image markedly.
In a related development, an independent group - formed by technical staffers and an ex-employee of the institute, has floated a 'Save FTII' forum to work for the early resolution of the crisis facing the state-run film institute. It has called upon the students to call off their strike and look for a solution through dialogue with the FTII's management and the Centre.