SRFTI one up on Pune

kolkata: what the ftii, pune, could not achieve in its several years of existence, the city's fledgling satyajit ray film and television institute has managed do with great elan. that was how ftii director mohan agashe chose to acknowledge srfti's achievement of organising the first student film festival in india. speaking at the inauguration of the five-day festival, agashe said on wednesday that the festival went to show that srfti had got over its initial problems.the student strikes at srfti were part of teething problems while those at ftii were part of aging problem. it is a mistake to assume that only film schools can produce good cinema. the classics of cinema came much before film schools. schools are just one of the roads to good filmmaking, said agashe. he pointed out that the spectrum of film school graduates covered directors from mani kaul to david dhawan. you must know where to fit in, agashe said. the srfti festival was opened by union information and broadcasting secretary pawan chopra. chopra, visiting srfti for the first time, said he was impressed by the facilities. he welcomed the opportunity for the institute's students to appreciate and learn from the works of other film schools. the inaugural films of the festival were the hill farm, by mark barker of national film and television school, london, and sticky dough by nathalie percillier of germany.