film archives many famous alumni spent over a year analyzing various issues the change from analogue to digital and possible ways to clear the academic backlog this effort was made without any grant and everyone worked selflessly on it but till date the nair committee report has not even been tabled the 2009 batch whose classes have started in january 2010 managed to complete the course by january 2015 this was made possible by giving it priority over the 2008 batch no one knows the logic for this decision in effect the 2009 batch finished its course in five years pushing the 2008 batch to its seventh year it is these students who suffered the most for ftiis reckless decisions and also faced assessment and expulsion threats this crisis spiraled into the gherao and the infamous midnight arrest ftiis core problem lies in the functioning of its director who holds all powers he has to function not only as a guide but also as a mentor rector psychologist and mediator but most ftii directors come from ias or allied services and are not prepared to play these roles the biggest problem is that the ftii is only a tiny blip on the ib ministrys large radar for them its a media wing not an academic institution all the educational institutions under the ib ministry account for less 3 per cent of its budget the hrd ministry on the other hand understands how crucial teachersresearchers and faculty are to an institution early in the ongoing crisis one of the seniormost ib officials called me to discuss ftiis problem a group of us had a fourhour meeting with ministry officials a fivepoint agenda was submitted on the immediate steps that needed to be taken the minister himself admitted to us that we havent made the best of the choices but as a government we cannot retract we were asked for recommendations to save the face of the government we were assured that all our recommendations would be implemented but nothing happened we continued our dialogue and then vidhu vinod chopra and raju hirani too stepped in vinod even agreed to play the mentor at ftii but the core issues that provoked the strike were not resolved it took the ministry almost 45 days and a midnight arrest to send a panel to assess the situation the ministry wants the ftii to be a place of excellence and a proposal to this effect was also to be tabled in the monsoon session of the parliament we now suggest a committee with the outgoing chairman and vicechairman of the previous society and three other members chosen by the ministry to create guidelines for appointments and end this impassethe author is an alumni of ftii and an oscarwinning sound designer