Launches Campaign For FTII To Drop Case Against Cannes 2024 Grand Prix Winner
Oscar-winning sound engineer Resul Pookutty has launched a campaign for the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) to withdraw its cases against the students, including Cannes 2024 Grand Prix winner Payal Kapadia, who had led the historic 131-day protest in 2015 against the appointment of Gajendra Singh Chauhan as the chairman of its governing body.
Taking to Instagram, Resul wrote: “FTII must now withdraw the cases against Payal and the other students. It owes them the prestige that has been bestowed upon it.”
Payal is Accused No. 25 and, as Resul pointed out, has to go to court next month for another hearing of the case that has been going on since 2015.
In 2015, FTII was in a state of ferment because of the appointment of Gajendra, a BJP activist whose only claim to fame was that he had played Yudhishtir in the TV serial Mahabharat.
Payal, who got into FTII on her second attempt in 2012, was one of the leaders of the 131-day protest against Chauhan, who, incidentally, was opposed by a phalanx of Bollywood celebrities, from Rajkummar Rao and Nawazuddin Siddiqui to Anupam Kher, and also by Soumitra Chatterjee and Jhanu Barua.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, whom Payal has thanked profusely for being her inspiration in response to his congratulatory message on Sunday, had visited the FTII campus and joined the student protesters in 2015.
As several people pointed out on X after Payal’s Grand Prix win, the FTII initiated disciplinary action against her when she led the boycott of classes. Later, FTII cut her scholarship and a foreign exchange grant.
In the same year, the Pune Police filed an FIR against 35 students, including Payal, after they held the then FTII director, Prashant Pathrabe, captive in his office. They were protesting against Prashant’s decision to proceed with the assessment of incomplete student projects of the 2008 batch.IANS
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