Maharashtra: Governor inaugurates metal art installation at FTII as part of diamond jubilee celebrations, students say not allowed to attend event

Nabh Abheepsa is made of scrapped studio lights, junked arc lights, out-of-use tracks and other discarded material. Prasanna Jain, head of Art Direction and Vikram Verma, head of Art Production, who spearheaded the idea of the installation, were facilitated at the event by the Governor.

“The celebration for our 60th year was halted as the pandemic was upon us in a matter of days. The installation is made up of scrap material of the… instruments once used by our past students. While the installation was completed in a matter of two months, including the time to conceptualise the idea, the official inauguration was delayed in light of the pandemic,” said FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola.

While several dignitaries and alumni attended the event virtually, some on-campus students alleged that they were not allowed to enter the premises.

“I have been at the residential hostel across the main campus since late November last year, when the lockdown eased. We were neither informed about the event nor invited. Instead, on the morning of the event, a handful of us who were here were questioned by security personnel and hostel guards about our plans for the day,” said Sayantan Chakrabarti, a student of the sound department.

Chakrabarti said he and others thought that as students of FTII, they would be allowed for the event. “But we were stopped at the hostel gate itself. In fact, they did not even let us go out for anything.”

Kainthola said he had no idea about any such restrictions. “If a request would have been made by the students, they could have attended the event. The security would have required a proper identification. Apart from that, since Google Meet has a limited login capacity, we sent the link to those who had requested it. We also had screens in three locations within campus for socially distanced viewing of the inauguration,” he said.