Pune: After the completion of two years of Gajendra Chauhan’s controversial chairmanship in centre’s aided Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Anupam Kher has been appointed as the new chairman.
The appointment of Chauhan had created outrage at the campus, which is located in Pune, and his tenure ended with a massive 139 days of protest by the students.
The appointment of Anupam Kher is, however, posing several questions, while the students are taking his appointment as a joke.
“How can Kher head FTII when he is already running a private acting school?” asked Harishankar Nachimuthu, who headed one of its longest strike in the premier film institute’s history to oppose Chauhan’s appointment, mentions Hindustan Times.
The appointment has been made by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which is headed by Smriti Irani.
“The students at FTII don’t see any difference between Chauhan and Kher, who is known to be to be a vocal supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His wife Kirron Kher is a BJP legislator from Chandigarh,” Nachimuthu added.
The institute in the past had worked under film personalities including Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Saeed Mirza, Mahesh Bhatt, Mrinal Sen, Vinod Khanna and Girish Karnad.