No one else approached for FTII post: RTI

The Indian Express had sought to know "Names of the candidates who were approached for the position of the chief of the governing council… before the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan".

A sign outside the FTTI campus, in Pune. (Source: Express Network by Arul Horizon)

Written by Garima Mishra | Pune |

A sign outside the FTTI campus, in Pune. (Source: Express Network by Arul Horizon)While top government sources have been defending the choice of Gajendra Chauhan as the chairman of the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) governing council saying "many eminent people" turned down the post, leaving the I&B Ministry "with a very limited list of people", an RTI reply shows this may not have been true."As per record, no candidate was approached for the position of the chief of Governing Council of FTII," says a reply to an RTI filed by The Indian Express. It further says, "the president of the FTII is nominated by the Central government, who acts as the chairman of this Governing Council".

The Indian Express had sought to know "Names of the candidates who were approached for the position of the chief of the governing council… before the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan".

In response to another Express RTI, on the "Names of the candidates who declined the offer", the FTII reply says, "The information is unavailable in record."

Again, officials have insisted that "the selection of chairman of the FTII was done through a process of wide consultations. The names that came up during the selection process consisted of people well-known in the industry as well as alumni of FTII".

Ministry sources said earlier that some of the people "considered for the post" included Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Jahnu Barua and Gulzar. While Chopra, Gulzar and Hirani were unavailable for comment, Barua said, "I was never approached for the post, so there is no question of declining the offer. If they had approached me, I would have been very keen to take up the offer, especially given the fact that I have passed out from the institute and I share an emotional bond with the place."

Barua incidentally resigned from the FTII Society recently as part of protests over Chauhan's appointment.

Gopalakrishnan too denied being approached for the position. "But even if I was approached, I wouldn't have been keen because I have already held the position twice in the past. I wanted someone else to take up the position but definitely not Gajendra Chauhan," he said.

The students of FTII continue to be on strike against Chauhan's appointment, as well as of some other FTII Society members such as Anagha Ghaisas, Narendra Pathak, Shailesh Gupta and Rahul Solapurkar.

As the strike entered the second month, filmmakers Kundan Shah and Aziz Mirza joined the calls for Chauhan to step down. Shah, an FTII alumni, told PTI that the appointment was "absurd". "Isn't the whole issue shameful? It's a shameful decision by the ministry. Who knows this man (Chauhan)? Just see his body of work. By appointing such a person, what is the government trying to do?" Shah said.

Targeting the government, the Congress dismissed its explanation that Chauhan was appointed as he can devote time to the institute. "Even a peon has ample time," the party said.