When Payal Kapadia led 131-day student protest against FTII chairman
Updated: May 26th, 2024
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| Payal Kapadia (Image: IANS) |
Payal Kapadia scripted history on May 25 by getting the Grand Prix for ‘All We Can Imagine As Light’ at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, but back in 2015, she was a condemned student at her alma mater, the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII).
In 2015, FTII was in a state of ferment because of the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan, a BJP activist better known for his role as Yudhishtir in the TV serial ‘Mahabharat’, as its chairman.
Kapadia, who had got into FTII on her second attempt in 2012, was one of the leaders of the 131-day protest against Chauhan, who, incidentally, was opposed by a phalanx of Bollywood celebrities, from Rajkummar Rao and Nawazuddin Siddiqui to Anupam Kher, and also by Soumitra Chatterjee and Jhanu Barua.
As several people pointed out on X after Kapadia’s Grand Prix win, FTII initiated disciplinary action against her when she led the boycott of classes, and later cut her grant.
In the same year, the Pune Police filed an FIR against 35 students, including Kapadia, after they held the then FTII director, Prashant Pathrabe, captive in his office.
They were protesting against his decision to proceed with the assessment of incomplete student projects of the 2008 batch.
Kapadia’s history at Cannes
FTII and Hindutva politics, interestingly, are the twin themes of Kapadia's debut docu-feature, ‘A Night of Knowing Nothing’, that won the Golden Eye at Cannes 2021. The film is still to be released in India.
Going back to Kapadia's FTII days, she was making a mark as a student leader. Her 13-minute film, 'Afternoon Clouds', was the only Indian entry in competition at Cannes in any category in 2017 - and it qualified for the 16-film shortlist for the Cinefondation student film section.
She did not win a prize, but her film was one of just 16 to be selected out of more than 2,600 that had been submitted for consideration from all over the world.
(This story was taken from a syndicated feed, and edited only for style by Gujarat Samachar Digital staff)
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