The politics of a film school, and how India is seeing more of it

A film school is supposed to be a place where students learn to observe and absorb But what happens when the act of watching the human experiment becomes a political one and is deemed problematicAt institutions such as Punersquos Film and Television Institute of India FTII and Kolkatarsquos Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute SRFTI cameras are not merely tools for making movies Known for their free voice film schools have often found themselves at the uneasy intersection of art and politicsInside FTII Punersquos campusStudents at SRFTI were on September 27 subjected to a brutal attack by workers claiming to be affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh RSS They allegedly tried to break through the gate so that their programme could be organised inside the campus In Janurary 24 2024 there were clashes inside the FTII Pune campus over banners put up by students condemning the 1992 demolition of the Babri MasjidWhy do film institutes in particular get attacked for expressing opposing viewsFor Prakash Jai a filmmaker and student at SRFTI now based in Mumbai the politics of a film institute begins with the diversity of the people inside it ldquoStudying at SRFTI itself helped me become aware of what is happening around the worldrdquo he says Hearing lived experiences of those who come from a completely different environment than yours is a privilege that Jai isnrsquot taking for granted ldquoA lot of people come to study from different backgrounds different places different cities Even foreign students from Ethiopia and Japan You get to know what is happening in their states and around yourdquoThe Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute in Kolkata PicInstagramsrftioutloudThis exposure to the world and different people makes film schools uncomfortable spaces for rigid political ideologies ldquoWe donrsquot judge each other here We are open to differing points of viewrdquo he says The issue is not which political party enters a campus but what happens to an institution when a political programme begins occupying a space meant for liberal thought ldquoSRFTI is a platform to hear all sorts of opinions and perspectives which these political parties donrsquot really like After all their mindset is lsquoHow can your ideology be different from oursrsquordquoHe also sees the growing popularity of politically charged films as part of the larger battle over what audiences believe to be true ldquoPropaganda films have become mainstreamrdquo he says pointing to a spate of ultrapatriotic films released What makes films like these particularly powerful apart from their politics he argues is their filmmaking technique ldquoYou are showing documentary footage CCTV footage newspaperlike facts and then merging it with fiction People watching a threehour film are not going to sit with Google or Wikipedia and crosscheck everythingrdquoNimish GourThat he says is where the camera becomes a dangerous tool ldquoIf you use the technicalities well with this medium that is a big problemrdquo Jai believes such films can make violence feel celebratory ldquoPeople are rewatching it listening to its music and talking about it Subconsciously they are celebrating violence Such films have become so normalised and mainstream today On the other hand a film having an opposing viewpoint is censored or barred from screenings That is dangerous for free voice and the art of cinema itselfrdquoThe politics around a film does not end when the camera stops rollingNimish Gour an FTII graduate from the 2004 batch and now a film editor and professor at MIT Institute of Design says ldquoEarlier we had this tolerance for everybody We respected and appreciated each otherrsquos opinionsrdquo He recalls how actors with opposing political views could still publicly respect one anotherResistance art on SRFTIrsquos walls PicInstagramsrftioutloudGour does not see the incidents at SRFTI and FTII as something new ldquoAt my time we were encouraged to have politics of our own We would always challenge the establishment but it would not receive as much media attention due to the lack of Internet Now even if the issue is miniscule it becomes a wildfire through online discourserdquoItrsquos best to conclude here with what renowned IndianAmerican filmmaker Mira Nair once said on a talk show with Vir Sanghvi ldquoEvery film is political itrsquos how you see the worldrdquo If film schools are under attack under the guise of fighting ldquoantinational sentimentsrdquo the art of Indian cinema at large may be at risk of getting wiped out Or maybe we are just riding a bad tide like Gour says ldquoWe faced the same backlash back then at a smaller scale The cycle keeps repeating itself every few years from my experience I have started feeling that we have been in Emergency since 2016 it has just not been announced yetrdquolsquoFilms are now political proofsrsquoFilm critic Anjali Pillai says that learning to make a film also teaches you to question itAnjali PillaiAt a film school learning to make a film also means learning to question what the film is making the audience believe The distinction becomes increasingly important as political cinema occupies more space in the mainstreamAnjali Pillai a film critic who runs thefourthwallin page on Instagram says propaganda becomes easier to recognise as it is repeated ldquoA growing number of mainstream films are built around a loud overt majoritarian framingrdquo she says ldquoAfter enough films you start recognising the same moves Which history is simplified which community is the villain the music and the framing want you to feel It becomes muscle memoryrdquoFor students learning to construct those very elements this awareness can be crucial Pillai believes cinemarsquos emotional power makes audiences particularly susceptible to confusing a persuasive film with fact ldquoFilms are increasingly consumed as political proof rather than as art or entertainmentrdquo she says pointing to films that have villianised minorities in India ldquoA film expressing a viewpoint makes an argument and trusts you to weigh it Propaganda doesnrsquot want you to weigh anything It wants you to leave angry at a specific group and assure you that what you saw was factrdquo Ultimately what political education a film school can offer is to teach them to see how images make people thinklsquoFilm is a great tool of propagandarsquoFilm lecturer and author Devdutt Trivedi explains why renowned film schools in India get the ldquoantinationalrdquo label attached to themThe politics of a film school Devdutt Trivedi argues cannot be separated from the politics of the cinema it teaches students to make A film theoretician lecturer and author he sees the ldquoantinationalrdquo label attached to film institutions as part of a larger misunderstanding of what art cinema doesldquoPolitical parties do not understand the idea of an art film They understand a film which has messages they do not understand what a film aesthetic isrdquo he saysTrivedi points to the histories of institutions such as FTII and SRFTI which he says have become associated with leftwing intellectual traditions Their histories make them targets for political groups The concern however goes beyond campus politicsldquoFilm is a tool of propagandardquo he says ldquoAny ruling party has a particular agenda it will follow that and it has been using film and propaganda So it wants to do that at the level of the instituterdquoldquoThe objective of film form is after all freedomrdquo he says ldquoYou need to have compassion on both sides Itrsquos very difficultrdquoTrivedi advises ldquoAs a professor I think there is a way out of this by understanding the totality of the situation and not being reactionary like how both the sides are right nowrdquolsquoHuman beings by nature are politicalrsquoFilm editor Antara Lahiri explains why freethinking spaces get targetedAntara LahiriAntara Lahiri mdash film editor of Delhi Crime FTII alumna and current guest lecturer at the institute mdash says the politics of a film school lies in its ability to let students think beyond the boundaries imposed by society Having witnessed the institute as both a student and a visiting professional she has noticed ldquoPeople are definitely more cautious when talking about politics todayrdquoldquoFTII and SRFTI are spaces for free thinkers Artistes by nature and human beings by birth are political beingsrdquo Lahiri says Film schools she believes naturally nurture this awareness ldquoThe very point of being filmmakers is that you question control you question the socalled societal frameworks and question authority I think it is natural for such spaces to be under threat whenever therersquos any kind of authoritarian governmentrdquoShe describes these institutes as sacred spaces where students watch films from across the world and encounter various perspectives ldquoThe original intention was never to restrict thought of any kindrdquo she says The attacks on such spaces she argues undermine the very purpose of film education ldquoWould a normal citizen not react if there were intruders in their homes I think it is the same logicrdquo