Anupam Kher on FTII students' open letter: 'I am like their senior; we will sit and talk'

The newly appointed chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India and veteran actor Anupam Kher responded to the open letter that was posted by the FTII students after Kher was appointed the chairmanship of the film institute. [caption id=“attachment_2500096” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo. Image courtesy: Twitter[/caption] Kher, who was present at the red carpet on the opening ceremony of the Jio MAMI 19th Mumbai Film Festival, on 12 October, told the media, “Whatever I have to discuss, I would love to discuss it with the students over there. I am like their senior. I was a student there in 1978 and now, I will go there as a chairman. So, I think it is a great time to celebrate but I am not going there with any baggage or any preconceived idea that I have to tell them this or that. Today’s youth can teach a lot to an actor and a personality like me. We will sit across. We will talk about it and we will take this great institution to greater heights,” reports The Indian Express. The students’ open letter posed several tough points pertaining to the institute’s current state of affairs. It said, the once supremely-coveted institute has now deteriorated and is “being turned into an institute that runs short-term crash courses for the generation of funds.” It alleges that the current administration imparts “industry practice where cinema is just being looked at as a commodity and not as an art form which serves the larger human cause.” It also raises questions on the current lavish expenditure done by the institute on “foundation day” and “open day” when it usually delays in providing salaries to the teachers, who again live in a persistent peril of “being sacked” _Read the full open letter here._ Kher replaced Gajendra Chauhan as the new FTII chairman on 11 October.