Anupam Kher is FTII chairman; students say ‘another joke’
NEW DELHI : Veteran Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was on Wednesday named chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. The previous chairman, Gajendra Chauhan‘s tenure ended in March.
The 62-year-old actor, who has worked in more than 500 films and over 100 plays in the past three decades, was conferred the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2016.
“I feel deeply humbled and honoured to be apportioned as the chairman of iconic FTII. I will perform my duties to the best of my abilities,” Anupam tweeted. In 2015, FTII saw a 139-day strike by students who termed Chauhan’s appointment “arbitrary” and “political” as he was a BJP member. Former FTII chairman, Gajendra Chauhan said: “Given the kind of person Anupam is, I think he will do really well . I am yet to congratulate him, but I want to personally meet and wish him. To head an institute like FTII, one doesn’t have to be just an actor or director, but a good administrator.”
Visibly unhappy with some people wrongly reporting that Chauhan has been replaced by Kher, he also took to twitter and wrote, “I hv not been axed. I completed my tenure in Mar 2017. Some channels are doing wrong reporting (sic)”
Students termed the appointment of Kher as “crazy” and “another joke”. “How can Kher head FTII when he is running a private acting school?” Harishankar Nachimuthu, who headed one of its longest strike in thepremierfilm institute’shistory to oppose Chauhan’s appointment, asked. He was referring to the Anupam Kher’s Actor Prepares institute run by the national award winner.
Nachimuthu said 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. “We had expected this from the government,” Nachimuthu told HT.
Another student and FTII students’ association general secretary Rohit Kumar said, as an actor, Kher has highest credentials. “The problem is his views,” Kumar said about Kher.
FTII former student Umesh Kulkarni said it’s much better to have Kher than the previous chairman.
“He should have been appointed as a chairman the first time itself. I hope Kher will play a key role in reviving the spirit of FTII,” he said.