Pune film institute to screen diploma movies for public

Film buffs will soon be able to watch movies made by students of FTII here as part of their project work, including formative works of iconic directors and actors of Indian cinema.
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) has a long list of prominent alumni, including filmmakers Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Girish Kasaravalli and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and actors Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Jaya Bachchan and Shabana Azmi.
"The first batch of FTII started in the 1960s, so we have diploma films of our past students since its inception," the institute's director, Bhupendra Kainthola, said here.
"The diploma films, made by the students as a part of their final year project work, generally do not see the light of day. So we have decided to screen them for the public at our premises once in a week as all these diploma films are like a goldmine," he said.

The public screening of these films is to begin on August 5.
The inaugural event will be attended FTII alumnus and veteran actor Shatrughan Sinha who, as a student of the institute, acted in his diploma film, titled "Angry Young Man", Kainthola said.

Sinha's diploma film would also be screened on the occasion, he said.
"People have been watching Sinha on the screen after he became an actor. But, it would be a treat for them to see their favourite actor in a film in which he acted when he was a student," he said.
Similarly, the diploma films of several celebrities and artistes, who once learnt the various aspects of film making at the institute during their student life, will be screened for the public who can just walk in and watch these them for free, the institute director said.

He said there are over 500 diploma films made by former students gathering dust at the FTII and the process to restore them is underway.
Gajendra Chauhan, the former chairman of FTII, said it is a good initiative as people will get to see the works of their favourite artistes when they were students.
A proposal to screen the diploma films on Doordarshan is pending with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, he said.