Being FTII is a commemorative volume issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to mark 60 years of the Film and Television ...
Being FTII is a commemorative volume issued by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to mark 60 years of the Film and Television Institute of Pune. India’s leading film school has produced truckloads of talent since it began operations in 1961. Some of its most well-known alumni have contributed essays to Being FTTI, in which they rewind to memories of what went on in the classroom and beyond it.
Here are edited excerpts from essays by Sriram Raghavan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shabana Azmi and Jahnu Barua about the institute that can “polish pebbles and dim diamonds”.
Sriram Raghavan, Screenplay Writing and Film Direction (1985-87)
I had given the entrance exam as a lark and when I got the call, I was already working with Mukul Anand, the upcoming hotshot director in Bombay. I thought that I should stick with him and learn on the job.
We were shooting in Khandala for Aitbaar (1985), a remake of Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. It was a three-day schedule and the interview date was bang in the middle of it. We were shooting a crucial scene where Dimple, the leading lady, was about to commit suicide when she hears a song that leads her to her college lover. I wanted to be there and watch the process of shooting...
