The tie-up will provide exposure and responsibility to students who will make socially-relevant
documentaries for the FD
A tie-up between the Film and Television Institute of India
(FTII) and the Films Division (FD), Mumbai, will provide maiden professional job
opportunities in the form of documentary film-making to students of direction from
the 2006 batch. In this first-ever systematic placement initiative for
students of the direction department, the FD will also provide a fee of
15,000 to every candidate on board for a ten-minute documentary.
Interested students of direction will begin submitting their proposals on potential
ideas to the FD, after which they will begin work. This is FTIIs maiden attempt
at providing a soft career launch to its direction students, who otherwise find
it difficult to obtain professional assignments upfront in the industry, said FTII
director D. J. Narain. The initiative materialised after Narain met FD director general
Bankim Kapadia last month. Kapadia is also a member of FTIIs governing council and
has worked in the institute’s administration in the past.
This is the first time FD has associated with us for our students. This tie-up will
provide initial job opportunities to all those students of direction currently on
campus who submit their final year diploma films, starting with those from the 2006
batch, Narain said. Till last year, there was no institutional effort for the placement
of the direction students. The FTII doesn’t keep a record of such a thing. But such
a tie-up will provide exposure and responsibility to students who will make socially-relevant
documentaries for the FD. It can also help them showcase their talents and establish
themselves professionally, especially through screenings of their works at film
festivals, Narain added. More importantly, this effort will also boost documentary
film training at the institute, he said. The effort will give a fillip to this area
of film-making, which has the potential to be fine-tuned further.
Similar discussions are underway with the National Film Development Corporation
(NFDC). We also hopes to have a similar tie-up with NFDC for our students, Narain
said. ESG approaches FTII for film courses The Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG),
which organises the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), has approached
the FTII to offer film-related courses. Like every year, the FTII participated in
the IFFI and the ESG has approached us to establish a film school and start film
courses in Goa. It’s too early to comment on what kind of a partnership we can have,
but we will be having discussions with the ESG to take this matter forward, said
FTII director, D. J. Narain.
Courtesy: Times of India
