The trouble with film education

A film school had been on Subhash Ghairsquos mind for a long time A Film and Television Institute of India FTII graduate who came into films to act Ghai ended up becoming a director of some of Indian cinemarsquos most successful films mdash Hero Karma Karz among them When the IPO bug bit the industry in 2000 mdash Ghairsquos Mukta Arts too raised Rs 100 crore A part of this Rs 23 crore was for lsquoan integrated studio cum research and training institutersquo going by the prospectusIn Distress Whistling Woods International founded by Subhash Ghai is the largest film school in Asia and among the top 10 in the world but neither the Indian or Maharashtra government thinks it is worth standing up forWhen the money was raised Ghai scouted for land and settled on a piece in Panvel on the outskirts of Mumbai The story goes that when the managing director of Maharashtra Film Stage and Cultural Development Corporation MFSCDC heard about it he told Ghai to come to Film City That is how Mukta Arts and MFSCDC ended up in an 8515 joint venture The idea was to ldquodevelop talent to make films for the global marketrdquo says GhaiBy all accounts the eightyear old Whistling Woods International WWI is a thumping success It is the largest film school in Asia and among the top ten in the world going by a Hollywood Reporter ranking in 2010 In the same year WWI became the youngest film school to be recognised as a full member of Centre International de Liaison des Ecoles de Cineacutema et de Teacuteleacutevision CILECT a global association of film schools There are only 150 members of CILECT out of a global total of over 3000 WWI has more than 1000 alumni out there in the global and Indian media industry Some have been part of international projects like Life of Pi and Mission Impossible IV Others are in firms such as Disney India DreamWorks Balaji Telefilms and othersBut WWI which took six years and Rs 100 crore might just shut down or morph into something else by July 2014 In the coming weeks the Mumbai High Court is set to hear WWIrsquos review petition on the land imbroglio it is caught in If it decides that WWI has to return the land it is built on then its options are limited That is because sitting as it does in Film City with the entire film television music and entertainment industry within a 15kilometre radius WWI is part of an ecosystem that is impossible to recreate Its location and Ghairsquos connections ensures that the whorsquos who of the industry form the faculty for WWIThere is Shyam Benegal Shabana Azmi Anjum Rajabali and Vishal Bharadwaj among othersWWIrsquos understanding of setting up a film school and the pedagogy around it is now much in demand The result has been several tieups with foreign universities and even the setting up of a campus or two aboard In September this year the Bradford CollegeWWI Film School opened in at Bradford UK with courses on film and animation A joint venture with Nigeriabased Udemba Group will open the African Film and TV Academy AFTA in Lagos in 2014By all accounts the WWI imbroglio is more about the errors of ommission by the Maharashtra government But because as Ghai puts it ldquoThe film industryrsquos reputation is like thatrdquo the government has distanced itself from a decision it took If this was a medical or an engineering school perhaps the reaction may have been different WWIrsquos governing council is headed by Anand Mahindra who has been vocal about supporting itAnother governing council member Kiran Karnik the former head of NASSCOM points the obvious ldquoA school like WWI is a need in a country with such a large audio visual industryrdquoIndia has one of the most robust and resilient film industries in the world Unlike China or France India has no quotas no restrictions on foreign films Yet Hollywood forms just about 58 per cent of the boxoffice a percentage that has remained constant To become a truly profitable and worldclass industry we do need to move from the disorganised chaos of the nineties to the corporatised scalable business that film production distribution and retail is becomingThis scaling up needs trained people Just like IIT or IIM produce worldclass engineers and managers WWI produces worldclass technicians writers cinematographers directors et al But because these are part of the entertainment industry they become less important Yet the fact is that it is a double taxpaying industry so why its manpower needs arenrsquot critical is not clearWWI was set up in order to feed this marketrsquos need for people It would be a pity if it canrsquot do thatThe writer is a media specialist and author Follow her on twitter at httptwittercomvanitakohlik