PUNE, December 30: Legendary music director Naushad Ali and prominent film makers Amol and Chitra Palekar are among members of the film fraternity who have expressed anguish over developments at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) and their solidarity with the students.Faxed statements issued by veteran film artistes to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry were released on Monday by the FTII Students' Association. According to Naushad Ali's statement, ``The contribution of FTII has been outstanding. Its alumni have contributed substantially to the improvements in the film industry and the government should continue to support this basic input of financial subsidy.''
Removal of financial subsidy would hike the fee, making the institute inaccessible to many students, the statement said. In a statement to Union Minister Jaipal Reddy, the veteran music director urged his intervention, as a centre for excellence will be sacrificed at the altar of commercialism.
In their statement, Amol
and Chitra Palekar opined that the need for organised training could not be questioned on the premise that great artistes were not products of any institution. The Palekars said a reputed institution like FTII should abide by its commitment to support artistic and technical excellence in the field of cinema.
Attempts to dilute the course in terms of time frame and content reflect disdain for academic considerations and the trend seems to be towards short-term training to churn out semi-trained professionals for a burgeoning industry, they lamented.
Among the other signatories are Sagar Sarhadi and Lata P M, national convenor of National Alliance of People's Movements and M Shashidaharan of the faculty of fine arts, M S University, Baroda.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
