'Lights, camera, pack up' for Gujarati movie's shoot at MSU

Vadodara: It was 'lights, camera, pack up' for crew of an upcoming Gujarati movie at MS University's historic Faculty of Arts after student outfits created hoopla over the permission granted to the production house to shoot the movie.
Much drama unfolded at the faculty premises on Monday morning when shooting for 'Love You Yaar' produced by city-based Khodiyar Productions started at the campus.
After the student outfits including the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Yuva Shakti Group objected to the shooting, which according to them disrupted ongoing classes, the university officials got the shooting cancelled.
The crew which had started filming a song for the movie at the parking area near the garden adjacent to the dome building attracted hundreds of students who bunked their classes to see the shoot which got wrapped up in two hours by 11.30 am.
The incident exposed lack of co-ordination between officials of Faculty of Arts and university administration even as student outfits demanded an inquiry against dean of Faculty of Arts professor P S Choondawat with whose permission the shooting had started.
"The shooting not just disrupted the classes but also disturbed those students who were appearing for the exams of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University that were being held at the faculty," said Parth Sharma, one of the agitating student leaders.
"When the production house had first approached me I had asked them to seek permission from the university registrar. When they approached me for the second time, I was told by them that the university officials had informed them that the decision is left to the concerned dean and hence I had issued them conditional permission. Today, when I got a call from registrar to stop the shooting, I got it cancelled," said dean of Faculty of Arts professor P S Choondawat.
"We had never given any permission to the production house. They had approached us but we had not conveyed them anything. We cancelled the permission as classes were disrupted and procedure was also not followed," said Neerja Jaiswal, registrar (officer on special duty) at MSU.
Film's director Hiralal Khatri on the other hand claimed that the shooting did not disturb any academic activity. "They were all unwanted elements who created unnecessary ruckus during the shoot. The film's song was to motivate youngsters for which we had taken permission. Now, we will again seek permission from the university," he said.