A Dhobi at the Film and Television Institute of India, Tukaram Gaikwad’s association with the ‘temple of filmmakers’ dates back to 1935

1935, Prabhat Studio, Pune. A dhobi, his eyes brimming with excitement, walks up to director V Shantaram, shares the happy news that he got a baby boy. Shantaram, smiles and says his Sant Tukaram will go on floor soon. So, why not name the baby, Tukaram.

Though Shantaram and the dhobi withered away into time, Tukaram lives on to tell the tale. Only, he is not a boy now, but a 74 year-old agile dhobi, who remains the silent spectator of the transformation, the 21-acre stretch has witnessed over the years. So from Prabhat Studios to a national level film institute, the journey of this ‘temple’ of filmmakers is also the journey of his life. Tukaramji (as the FTIIians fondly address him) has been there and seen it all – Prabhat Studios in its full glory, its disintegration, the formation years of the institute, its first batch, that drew only 3-4 students for the direction course, and its successful alumni.

Though his eyesight is giving him trouble now, everything is crystal clear in Tukaramji’s memory.

Prod him a bit and he will tell you how Jaya Bhaduri (now Jaya Bachhan) borrowed his younger brother’s wife’s jewellery for her student film, when she attended the satyanarayan pooja at his place with Rahana Sultana. And how showman Shubhash Ghai saw Ganga Jamuna because of him. “He still gives me the credit of watching the blockbuster hit. When he was a student here, his money order did not arrive when Ganga Jamuna was released and Asrani and he wanted to watch the film. They came to me to borrow Rs 10. That time it was not note but chillars so I produced a handful of chillars in front of him and he picked the necessary amount. It was then and even today he says he watched Ganga Jamuna because of me,” reminisces Tukaram Narayan Gaikwad, whose association with the institute dates back to 1935.

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