FTII festival will showcase its storehouse of talent

MUMBAI: In a bid to shrug off its crisis-ridden image and market itself as the storehouse of talent the 43-year-old Film and Television Institute of India, will host a four-day festival in Pune. Come August the best works from some of its brightest talents will be on display. Organised by the institute's alumni body, Grafttii, the festival 'Wisdom Tree' - named after the mango tree on the campus under which generations of students have nurtured their talents - will showcase a wide spectrum of feature films, documentaries, television and ad films.The festival is an assertion that the institute, which has been embroiled in much controversy and blood-letting in the recent past and has been written off by the critics, still remains the country's premier film training varsity, said Graftii president Shashi Ranjan. The ex-students' body was revived a year ago to resuscitate the institute. "The effort is also to remind the world about the institute's significant contribution towards the up-gradation of the Indian entertainment industry," said Mr Ranjan, adding that it would instill a sense of pride among fresh graduates. According to Graftii vice-president Aruna Raje, who is also on the governing council of the film institute, the festival should have been organised a long time ago. "It is essentially to pat ourselves on the back and say that the institute has succeeded in enriching Indian cinema." Scrutinising the repertoire of 2,000-odd alumni of the institute would have been a great ordeal, admitted filmmaker Saeed Mirza, who's also the festival director. So instead, the selection was restricted to award-winning works by 250-odd graduates. The entire selection process took about three months after which some 75 films in Hindi and regional languages, ranging from purely art cinema to downright commercial, were short listed. For instance, Vinay Shukla's national award-winning film Godmother has been selected for screening at the festival, as much for the filmmaker as for its actress Shabana Azmi, film editor Renu Saluja, cinematographer Rajan Kothari and sound recordist Narendra Soni, all of whom are alumnis. Works of other stalwarts including Adoor Gopalakrishnan and Girish Kasarvalli, actors Naseerudin Shah, Om Puri and Jaya Bachchan, television producers Raman Kumar and Anand Mahendru, ad filmmakers, Pankaj Parashar and Mahesh Aney, cinematographer Binod Pradhan and Manmohan Singh, will be also be showcased. "I feel extremely proud and contented that my alma mater has appreciated my work of creation. It's like receiving a pat from one's own family," said Vinay Shukla. For filmmaker and TV producer Raman Kumar, Class of '79, the pleasure is almost treble since his first film after leaving the institute, Saath Saath and his popular tele-serials, Tara and Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, will also be part of the festival. "It's a momentous as well as a nostalgic occasion for me," he said.