Prof U R Ananthamurthy, Chairman, FTII.
Excerpts from an interview with Anil Mehta
On the future of Indian Cinema and FTII's role in it.
I've always believed that an institute like this should encourage regional cinema.
If there is Indian cinema then it becomes truly Indian through being regional. The regional and the universal are not contradictory. A genuinely regional is genuinely universal.
And we are also Asian and not just Indian. I realise that when I see Iranian movies.
We have several identities. That of region, that of caste, of nation, of being Asian and also an universal identity.
...And where else can you do it, but here. We should not become a mere place for making talent available to big commercial establishments. We should make genuine talent available for a new kind of movie environment, which will cover the industry as well. It is a very complex affair. We should do it but it is a long battle. So any idea on part of the government to turn this into a money spinner would also have to be dealt with.
On privatisation and generation of funds
You know, we have tried what the world calls Upaya. Upaya has many strategies.
Upa-aya means how to come closer to your goals.
One upaya is to run short term courses... It is to make money, fill the industry or whoeve/whatever it is ... so you have the equipment, you have the talent necessary. Second, ask this place to become a deemed university and if you can attract that kind of money... have, even undergraduate courses. Once a university, we get obligatory funds from the centre and we will also be able to raise our own funds from some other place.
We should also not raise the fees. It should be reasonable.
....The other upaya is to be declared an institution of excellence. And make it also an Asian institution in 35 acres, so if you begin to grow... this kind of somebody manipulating you will be less. Only when you are not growing , when you are not moving ahead, when you are not turning out very good students, then there is trouble on the campus... you begin to be eaten by other people. So we have to energise. The teachers have to energise.
On the teaching at FTII:
I would like to invite a group of people on a contract basis. There are ways of doing it even within the government rules. We should pay them more and the staff of the institute should look forward to working with men and women of eminence from outside. So these are various ways of addressing the issue without hiring anyone on a permanent basis.
...In order to produce the kind of films that the industry talks about, you don't need three years of training and a person with six moths of training may be able to do many things... of the kind of 'consumables'. Cinema is also seen as a consumable. But here, you are training the minds of people and their sensibilities.... I think a good cinema maker has to be exposed to the best of painting, best of literature, best of theatre, best of music, political philosophy, history, you can't talk of realism without knowing what happened in the two world wars, you can't talk of surrealism unless you know what the European mind went through. We begin to use these aesthetic terms without knowing they have roots. So these three years the students spend here, should be to train minds, which if the government has any wisdom, should be seen as a great investment.
How does this become policy and how do you create that ambience?
To be honest, I still don't know (how it becomes policy). But while I am here, I will carry it with me.
... everyone talks about old days because of Ritwik Ghatak- aperson who has made such a difference. Some of the top people lived here, taught here. We need that kind of input. A great filmmaker comes here and is just around for people to see and talk and interact with for a short period.... that may begin to generate that ambience.
You know our students are good. Many students who could have gone into an IIT have opted to come here and they have taken a risk. They could easily have made money studying medicine or engineering.
...People come here after graduation, in the age group 21-22 and above. They have come here for an education, not just to learn a new skill because they have not come to an IIT.
If it is a deemed university, the mental attitudes may change. A deemed university may have its own problems but at least a diploma holder should feel that he has done a post-graduation.
It's a question I have been asking, is there enough input in these three years. We have to create a new cultural mindset.
....Our primary goal should be - young minds have come here and minds have to be trained and skills to be perfected. Training of the minds means so many things - being aesthetically aware, generally aware, politically aware, philosophically aware, so there should be a lot of reading. Not only should they see a lot of films, they should read a lot. These are not structured methodically, but when it happens nobody can stop it. There have to be good teachers to inspire the students. A man like Satish Bahadur, he used to come to our village and he inspired a number of people in my district. But these are bad times for all universities. They are shutting down in America too. There is more money for business schools in America than for physics. There is a crisis in the world with globalisation. But also a lot of hope, thanks to new technologies.
from the Wisdom Tree Festival