Pahlaj Nihalani now wants to make a documentary exposing FTII students as 'anti-national'

Central Board of Film Certification chairman, Pahlaj Nihalani is in the news again and this time it isn’t about his much-talked-about video tribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ‘ Mera Desh Mahan ’. Next on Nihalani’s bucket list is to make a documentary film to expose FTII students as “anti-nationals”, who he thinks are backed by unimportant industry members whose only aim is to bring down the Modi government. [caption id=“attachment_2055529” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Censor board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. Image courtesy: IBNLive[/caption] In an  Economic Times report , Nihalani said that the ongoing FTII protests (which have been in motion since June this year, against the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII chairperson) are being supported by producers who “have never made any commercially viable movie in life”. He adds, “I am going to make a movie on how badly the FTII was functioning all these years and how the students were using government resources continuously but working against it.” He also said that these students may have managed to get everyone’s attention, but they will not be able to adjust in FTII with “such an attitude”. After calling off their 139-day strike, which was followed by the #awardwapsi debate with Dibakar Banerjee, Anand Patwardhan and other filmmakers returning their National Awards, the FTII students have now decided to take their protests to the International Film Festival of Goa. Nihalani also defended his tribute video by rubbishing unnecessary criticism towards it. “If this is chamchagiri (sycophancy), then I am proud of it,” he told NDTV, in this report .