HYDERABAD: The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) appears to have landed in yet another controversy with a filmmaker, miffed with its alleged negligence, seeking to take back a collection of over 50,000 gramophone records donated to it by him a decade ago.
According to the students, the then head of the EFLU had promised to create a digital library of musical archives but neither he nor his successors have taken any steps in this regard. When asked, incharge Vice-Chancellor Prof R Amritavalli said, “There was a project proposed by Prof D Venkat Rao earlier in 2002. I am sure Prof Rao would have taken good care of the resources (the film-maker’s donation).”
The resources were handed over to the Educational Multimedia Research Centre (EMMRC) and the media department of the varsity for safe custody. But it is learnt that Prof Rao is on a sabbatical and the project was scrapped in 2007 by the then VC Abhay Maurya.
The students said that in 2002, the university authorities had also promised to name a lab after the film-maker as is the practice when an individual donates his record collection for research purposes. “Even after 10 years, the archives have not been put to use by the university. And where the archives are stored itself is unknown,” said G Seetaramulu, a student.
“The building which housed the collection no longer exists and we are concerned about the collection of gramophone records, which could also be the highest individual collection of musical archives,” he added. The film-maker in question is contemplating to knock on the doors of the university to get back his collection but when contacted, he refused to comment.