normsPune, Oct 12 (PTI) The Film and Television Institute ofIndia's (FTII) decision to alter the time-frame for completionof an academic exercise has met with boycott call fromstudents.
The second year batch of various courses have decided toboycott an assignment "dialogue exercise" to protest theadministration's directive to finish shooting of films in twodays instead of three days.
In the third semester, students from Direction,Cinematography, Sound Design, Editing and Art Directioncourses are supposed to shoot films as part of theircurriculum and the exercise is called "dialogue exercise".
According to FTII Students' Association (FSA), the entirebatch of 2016 has decided to boycott the scheduled productionmeet which generally takes place before the actual shooting ofthe films of "dialogue exercise".
The administration initially reacted by asking a studenteach from Direction, Cinematography, Sound Design, Editing andArt Direction courses to vacate the hostel for the thirdsemester, but eventually revoked the order.
FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola today said the decisionasking the students to vacate the hostel has been revoked andthey will no longer have to vacate their hostel.
"The notices issued to all these students to vacate thehostels are revoked," he said.
FSA president Robin Joy said as per new norms, everyshooting shift will be of 12 hours and the exercise has to becompleted within two days.
"Earlier, it used to be of three days with eight-hourshift per day," he said, adding it is not logisticallyfeasible to do 12-hour shift for two days.
Joy said it would be "inhuman" to force lightmen,carpenters, painters, make-up artists and actors to work atsuch a long stretch.
"With such a co-ordinated exercise in a studio, studentsshould be given enough time as primarily students' learningaspect should be prioritised rather than looking to finish offthe exercise in a haste," Joy said.
Meanwhile, Amit Tyagi, Dean (films), said the two-daynorm has been there for a long time and it was only altered afew years back.
"With a credit-based syllabus in place, the institutewants to prevent backlogs and has brought back the old two-day12-hour shift norm. Our purpose is to complete the semester ontime so as to prevent the backlog," he said.
Tyagi claimed even the students had agreed to the changednorm.
"We have given them an offer in which they can even usethe previous day, apart from the two days, when propping andlighting is done before the actual shoot," he added.
However, the students have decided to boycott the"dialogue exercise".
"We will not accept the offer and we will continue toboycott the exercise," said joy.
Standing firm, the administration said if the studentsfailed to participate, they would miss the opportunity to makea film and in no circumstances, would they be allowed to be apart of the exercise later.
In 2015, the students had held a 139-day-long protestagainst the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, then FTIIchairman, over his "credentials".
Veteran actor Anupam Kher was yesterday named as the newchairman of the premier film institute. PTI SPK NSKSRY.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.