senior ib official poor funding led to poor infrastructure created backlogs in students projectslaxity among students too has been blamed but even their critics admit that administrative lapses are more at fault between 1978 and 2010 there were many student protests revolving around academic issues and poor facilities but none of these issues were taken up by the government actively said an official the institute was later registered as a society under the societies registration act with the governing council as the supreme administrative authority with its chairman a respected figure from the world of cinema or of the performing arts words that students have fallen back on to express their angst against the current appointment 200 awards the many protests at ftii notwithstanding the institutes alumni are an awards magnet in fact in its most tumultuous decade 2005 to 2015 students won as many as 105 national awards murali g a 2009batch cinematography student was in dubai earlier this month where he won an award for his work in a tamil film he is now set to start work with superstar rajnikanth i hail from a village called uthanga rai in tamil nadu i could not communicate in any other lan guage but tamil when i appeared for the ftii en trance test if not for ftii i would not have been able to be here i am a painter and the first genera tion graduate in my family he said another alum nus anup singh batla recalls joining ftii after he watched a retrospective of ritwik ghataks films in paris now batlas film quissa 2013 has been winning rave reviews across the international film circuit and awards too everyone knows the worth of ftii because of its studentswe are taught to ask questions and students are doing just that at present batla said at the last count ftiis national and international award tally stood at 200 and 194 students won awards while they were still studying solutions well thought out and not kneejerk to the ongoing crisis are critical to retain the glory of this premier institute beefed up budgets and better infrastructure can iron out a chunk of concern but more importantly the ftii alumni say the institutes reins should be in the hands of industry stalwarts and there should be no room for political interference ftii alumnus avinash arun whose film killa won the prestigious crystal bear at the berlin international film festival and a national award this year said the country will never know what kind of films an amit dutta or an umesh kulkarni both ftii products makethese people have dedicated retrospectives in international film festivals ftii students represent the country in international film festivals in big numbers politics should not interfere in this sacred educational institute he said and smothering students voices wouldnt work marat h i f i l m m a ke r u m e s h kulkarni who has won national and inter national awards said