ANUPAM KHER RESIGNS AS FTII CHIEF, CITES COMMITMENT TO INT’L TV SHOW

PUNE: Veteran actor, Anupam Kher, resigned as chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) on Tuesday, saying his international assignments would keep him away from being “actively involved” in the affairs of the institute.

In his resignation letter, addressed to Information and Broadcasting minister, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Kher said he will have to be in the United States for nine months every year between 2018 and 2022, for a show he is working on. Kher said when the then I&B minister, Smriti Irani, approached him about taking over as FTII chairman in September 2017, he had told her of this possibility.

Kher replaced Gajendra Chauhan as the chairperson in October 2017.

“Given this assignment, it would not be fair to me, the students and management team, for me to hold a position of such responsibility and accountability, without being actively involved in the operations,” Kher wrote in his resignation letter, a copy of which he posted on Twitter on Wednesday. Soon after, he tweeted: “It has been an honour, a privilege & a great learning experience to be chairman of the prestigious @Ftiiofficial.

But because of my international assignments I won’t have much time to devote...”

Kher’s resignation comes at a time when students were protesting over poor infrastructure. FTII students said they were shocked by Kher’s resignation.

“We were hoping he would intervene for us and help us get better facilities...,” said Rohit Kumar, a 2016 batch student, who was also a former secretary of the FTII students’ union.