The place in Rohtak

The first thing that strikes you about that four-in-one place (film institute, school of architecture, fine arts and theatre) is the sheer ambition of the place. Of course the synergies of these things are known to any half way serious artist, but to actually set up a place like that in a place without a history in the arts is ambition itself.

I can’t claim to know much about the place’s history (of at least the past few years that it has been in existence), but to have thought of such a place and then to actually get that fabulous building designed and now built. This in itself constitutes an achievement.

Now to sustain it needs a vision, a vision of culture, of the place of the arts in modern day human society and how such a place will actually go about integrating itself to life and society around. Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal was set up by people with a background in literature in Hindi, which gave them a direct link into people’s lives. Can the Rohtak place do the same?

Realistically, the people running the place will have no option but to do something very drastically new. Otherwise you run the danger of FTII-NFDC-IFFI brigade of just becoming a club of irrelevance. Popular culture has developed its own cinema of independence when the distributors and cinema halls wanted smaller movies. No one really needs governments for that.

I would have stayed away from such a place given my misplaced aversion to academics ( born out of FTII I think), but my friends are pushing me to try out something new,to possibly help this ambitious place survive and maybe thrive. After all visions are simply commonly held beliefs and if we can help to bring that to this institution, why not.

So lets see, I might be involved if they want me in! I’m an unknown, middle aged and a person without a history of one discipline- not the most attractive of customers for a government run institution.