Chapter -1 Intoduction to the Study
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CHAPTER -1 INTODUCTION TO THE STUDY CHAPTER -1 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY Research Topic: Critical Study of Academic Management of Post Graduate Diploma Courses conducted at Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. 1.1 Introduction : Establishing a Tradition^ in Film andlV Training Established in the year 1960 on the erstwhile Prabhat Studio premises at Pune and thereby inheriting a rich legacy in quality Cinema , the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has truly lived up to its avowed objective in the field of imparting training in film making and television programme production. Today the FTII Is considered as a Center of Excellence not only in India but also in Asia and Europe. Films made by the students of the Institute are entered in festivals both in India and abroad. Many of them have won National and International awards. In spite of several problems at FTII the learning of film making is thorough. The alumni of the FTII have penetrated all corners of the Indian Film and Television industry and have excelled in all its fields. The students get full freedom for creativity. They make whatever they wish. The teachers and all the staff members put their best efforts for students' films. Recently (22 February, 2009), Resul Pookutty an audiographer, who designed the sound for the film "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE", bagged an Oscar award for his outstanding work. Subhash Ghai, Mani Kaul, Nasiruddin Shah, Jaya Bhaduri, Raza Murad, Shatrughan Sinha, Mithun Chakraborty, Tom Alter, Kanwarjit Paintal, Adoor Gopal Krishnan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Raj Kumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Shabana Azmi, Renu Saluja, K. K. Mahajan, Shaji N. Karun, Ketan Mehta, Kumar Shahani, Jahnu Barua, Girish Kasarvalli, Saeed Mirza, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah are alumni of this Institute. 1.1.1 Quality and effectiveness of the courses The institute maintains the data base of its diploma holders. The alumni of the institute enjoy high reputation and status in the Mumbai film industry. A survey was carried out by the institute to know the professional positions of the pass 1. FTII Prospectus, 2008, p-1 Position of Diploma Holders as on 1/11/2000 • Gainfully eniplyed • Well established 111 profession • Distinguished in profession • Foreign students • Deceased outs of the institute. The survey has revealed that alumni from the last three batches (passouts of 2004, 05 and 06) are doing fairly well. Conducted over a period of three months, the survey has looked at factors like pay packets, current employers and the kind of breakthroughs achieved. Recent FTII passouts (October 2008): Courses Pay packages per annum Others 3 year course One year course Most of the In TV students work as Editing 2 - 3 lakh 1.8-4.2 lakhs freelancers with Cinematography 6 lakhs 5 lakhs reputed TV Audiography 3 -5 lakhs 1.8- 3 lakhs production houses, Direction Many of them 3- 5 lakhs coordinators for are writing commissioned scripts and it programmes like is difficult to UNDP and assess their UNESCO etc. emoluments 1.1.2 Achievements of Film Wing The films of the FTII alumni are known to bag prestigious awards in both the feature length as well as the short film category. For the last four decades several films made by the FTII alumni have won accolades in National and International Film Festivals. Five of the diploma films of 2008 batch were shown at more than 75 film festivals all over the world (29*^ March 2009, Times of India). Since 1971 the Television Wing has been conducting in-service training to the personnel of Doordarshan. Short-Tenn courses are also conducted in specialized areas for Doordarshan staff and Indian Information Service (IIS) Probationers etc. and so far over 6000 participants including the Annual Film Appreciation course participants have been trained. 1.2 Research problem: • The FTII is a training center and not an academic institute and so the courses are not approved by AICTE. There are no guidelines and standard norms for the institute. Due to absence of guidelines, the students keep on asking for more facilities and infrastructure. There is no reference point available for comparison. • Professional indiscipline: The academic schedules and norms of the film projects and exercises are not followed; therefore the projects do not get completed in time. Because of this, next activity can not be planned in advance. • Backlog: Due to backlog, second and Third year run parallel putting severe burden on infrastructure which was already insufficient. In short, the problems are having compound effects. Three year courses get completed in four or more years. • The facilities and infrastructure: The infrastructure was created for 10 students in each specialization (total 40 students). At present, the number of students is 60. The infrastructure gets overloaded due to additional workloads of backlog. New courses (Acting, Animation, Art Direction and Screenplay Writing) have been introduced in the recent past but the infrastructure remains the same. There is a severe shortage of 93 hostel rooms which is always the burning issue of the students at the time of admission. • Culture: One very unfortunate attitudinal characteristic of students in the Film wing has been that they have generally not been prepared to take "NO" for an answer on any of their demands and have always equated creativity with license. • Finance: The funds are received from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The funds are always delayed. The institute faces the acute shortage of funds. At times, the salaries are paid by taking loan against the employees contributory provident funds. • Syllabus: The syllabus Review committee consists of the alumni of the institute, its recommendations to delete some exercises are rejected by the students and therefore the problems remain the same. • Teaching posts have been lying Vacant for a long time. Some of them have been abolished due to government's policy. Position of vacant posts as on 30'" June 2009 is as follows - Sr.No Name of the post sanctioned vacant posts vacant posts posts (%) 1 Professor 10 7 70.00% 2 Assistant professor 18 13 72.22% 3 Lecturer 20 7 35.00% 4 Demonstrator 4 2 50.00% • Film industry does not ask the pass out students for completion certificate, therefore no one bothers for the certificate and its recognition. • Lack of discipline in the campus. The students were arrested for creating nuisance for the nearby residents. The Director (an IAS officer) had to go to plead for the 5 anrested students at 3 am on 7'^^ October 2009. • In film schools, the courses are inter-dependent and therefore all the four students (Direction, Cinematography, Editing and Audiography) of a team are awarded their diplomas altogether. Because of delay on one's part, others affects without their fault. • Admissions are linked to the hostel availability. The admissions for the academic year 2009-10 were delayed / postponed to December 2009 as the hostel accommodation for the newcomers was not available. • Seniors' interference: The students involve GRAFTTI (Graduates of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune), an association of the alumni of the institute in every internal matter of the institute. The GRAFTTI request and pressurize the administration to accept the students' demands. • Government' apathy : The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has never treated the FTII as an academic institute, but a subordinate office and therefore the pay scales and other service conditions (no pension and medical facility after retirement, retirement age 60 years while in central universities it is 65 years) of the teachers are poor. A professor of FTII gets half the salary of a University professor. • Students are creative, intelligent and persuasive. Their films participate in various film festivals all over the world therefore they try to put their best in their diploma projects to win prizes. This does not happen easily but ask for more time and facilifies beyond schedule and norms. The students of other courses follow suit, their courses also get delayed. They quote the precedents of three year courses. • The entrance examination for the year 2009-10 was held on 26th July 2009 and the academic year may start in the last week of December, 2009. The aspirants for the diploma courses would suffer due to late admissions and late start of academic sessions by 6 months. • The admission forms and prospectus are never available on the prescribed dates. The advertisement for the year 2009-10 came on 1®' March 2009 and the forms were supposed to be available on 9**^ March, but similar to previous years, they were made available from 16'^ March. 4 1.3 Statement of the problem • Courses are not recognized by AICTE and no affiliation with any university • Unsatisfactory management of the academic activities • Lacl< of professional discipline (mishandling of equipments especially by the Direction departments and not returning them in time, not following the norms etc.). • Direction department is poorly managed. (Appendix- 2) • It has indeed been the reigning culture of the Institute that a hugely disproportionate amount of emphasis is laid on the diploma films in relation to the other projects. This is being stated only to emphasize the point that, if adequate thought is not given to such important projects in advance, you land up in a situation where you lose control over the time dynamics of your production. (Appendix-2) • The academic calendar is uncertain. No one knows as to when First year will go to Second year and Second year to Third year