Shashi Tharoor who is a party member representing Indian National Congress and known for his exceptionally eloquent style of speaking is in the headlines again.
Payal Kapadia who is an FTII Pune (Film and Television Institute of India) alumnus recently won the Grand Prix at the Cannes festival for her film “All we Imagine as Light”. It was the first time that India entered the Cannes Film festival’s main competition with a film in 30 years.
The film co-produced by Italy, Luxembourg, France and Netherlands apart from India stars Kani Kusruti, Chhaya Kadam, Divya Prabha and Hridhu Haroon as lead actors. The film is written and directed by Payal Kapadia.
PM Modi congratulated Payal’s historic win by sharing a greeting on his post on Sunday, May 26. He wrote that the nation is proud of her win at the 77th Cannes Film festival and representing India to her glory.
He also said that her talent continues to shine on the global stage as an FTII alumni giving a hint of India’s rich creativity and motivating a new generation of filmmakers.
To this Shashi Tharoor replied that PM Modi should provide amnesty to Payal Kapadia and all the other students who protested against the appointment of unqualified Gajendra Chauhan as FTII’s Chairman back in 2015 and are being dragged to the court till this day whos next hearing is on 26th June.
The protest was held in 2015 when Payal was a student in the college (2015-2018) and along with her classmates protested against the autocratic appointment of actor turned politician Gajendra Chauhan as it’s Chairman.
This protest was staged for 139 days, the longest protest in FTII’s history by students at the FTII’s Law College Road campus in Pune. In August 2015, the students were arrested in a night raid for confining and holding FTII’s director Prashant Pathrabe in his office for 8 hours.
The director accused the students of mental torture and harrasment whereas students accused the policemen of manhandling then and breaking glasses. For this protest they are still facing legal challenges. He was removed in October 2017 and currently Shekhar Kapur holds the position of Chairman in the institute.
Dhruv Rathee who is a famous Youtuber also targeted Gajendra Chauhan in one of his recent videos, “Narendra Modi: A dictator mentality” where he condemned his appointment as the Chairman who was unqualified in the first place and not even in the nomination list. He was arbitrarily appointed by displaying cajolery to Modi.
This move was castigated by many high profile actors in the industry. FTII also made a post recently congratulating Payal Kapadia for her win to which Fukrey actor Ali Fazal replied, “Just don’t”.
