October 11, 2017 marked the date of Anupam Kher taking over Gajendra Chauhan’s position of being the chairman of FTII and a year since, the actor has already reportedly put in his resignation from the position.
The actor, most in news for his portrayal of Dr. Manmohan Singh on screen through his upcoming film ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, has quoted his ‘busy schedule’ as the reason of resigning from the highly regarded post.
But not many would know that in his tenure, Anupam played one-man army. He had no team to handle as the government did not nominate other members of the society, which in turn could not constitute the governing council and the academic council. Anupam was solely responsible for everything happening at the FTII, reports Hindustan Times.
Post the struggle period, FTII finally got a team with the appointment of film producer BP Singh as vice-chairman; Raju Hirani, director; Mahesh Aney, cinematographer and others as non-official members of the governing council.
Kher had to wait till September when the information and broadcasting ministry nominated 12 non-official members of FTII society, which in turn constituted two key bodies responsible for decision making – the governing council (GC) and the academic council (AC). This decision was also taken by the former FTII chairman Anupam Kher.
In a meeting chaired by Kher, actor-director Satish Kaushik was chosen as vice-president of FTII society while film producer BP Singh was given the title of vice-chairman of GC and chairman of AC.
“Even as Anupam Kher resigned as FTII chairman, the society, governing council and academic council will remain intact. The government will only have to appoint a new head for the institute,” confirmed Bhupendra Kainthola, FTII director.
On Anupam taking over his roles before resigning, he added, “On Tuesday, he presided over the first-ever meeting of FTII’s standing finance committee, society and governing council in Mumbai and also approved the new academic council. With this, the functional architecture of FTII, the country’s premier film education centre, is now in place.”