Film and Television Institute of India Review By Akash Kumar

FTII full time PG acting course is for people who aspire to be actors. The college’s alumnus who has done great is someone whom everyone in India knows. However, FTII is just for learning method acting because the students are called actors here but no actors of the institutes were provided any acting opportunities outside the campus. The campus though organizes many fests in which students have to perform and many known directors from the world of theatre and cinema are invited. FTII promotes Marathi film industry and therefore actors (students) from Maharashtra always had an upper hand. After six months itself I cursed myself that why haven’t I joined National School of Drama in Delhi. I am not saying that FTII only has downside as the acting degree from FTII made me even more confident. You will start valuing your craft while studying here. Some actors started valuing their craft so much that they even turned down some offers citing that the roles were not suited for them. I kept waiting for such an opportunity at the campus but it never came my way.

An acting school too has classrooms with mirrors as this is how method acting is learn. Acting is a fooling business and if you can fool yourself or let’s say convince yourself only then you can become an actor. So that was our first chapter and then gradually we learned many more of such crafts. I wish I could share many of those but the institute told us that never sell yourself down the river or else I would have. FTII is undoubtedly one of the finest institutes because the college has its own theatre and many prominent film and ad makers come to the campus to take students. If you are lucky enough you might get job offer of an assistant.

The faculty were called senior actors as I won't name them because some of them are household names. They have struggled and so have decided to teach acting because more than acting, one should know how to sell themselves. Acting is more about marketing today so those who can market themselves will get opportunities. Thus, along with acting our faculty also taught us some marketing skills because as an actor we have to consider ourselves as a product. So, the faculty were the ones who have achieved a lot in their acting career. Famous actor Amol Palekar also used to come for giving us feedback on our performances.

Institute just gives us opportunity finding work is left on students.

FTII campus is beautiful as it looks like a film set but the hostels were in poor conditions. Even the food that hostel students were served was something that I will die fasting but won’t eat. Hostels are therefore always half empty because Pune is a happening town and the college is located in one of the most happening areas of the city. Law College was just 100m from our campus and other hot colleges like Symbiosis, and Fergusson College were also not far. I rented a flat at Ferguson college road and stayed with one of my batch mate.

From cinematography, to mass communication to acting. FTII offers all the courses and therefore all the studios and green rooms required for such courses are well maintained at the campus. Imagine the college had a library that had books and a video library from where we can watch films or even take films in our pen drives and watch it on our laptops. There are three theatres at the campus. The smallest of them is the preview theatre, and then the classroom theatre which was also our classroom. All our theory and practical sessions happened there. Then there was the main theatre where all our performances were done every two months. Apart from our performances, many recognised films were shown to us at the main theatre. All the noted south Indian films that I have seen in my life, I saw it at that main theatre. Actors have to stay fit and for that FTII has built a large sports complex and a gymnasium. The sports complex had a football ground a garden for stretching and yoga. To reignite the fire in us as an actor, there was a swimming pool to refresh ourselves. The campus was the best for learning as it provided a very healthy environment for learning.

Every Saturday a movie was screened at the 35mm screen of MT (Main Theatre). So, the entire week, I used to wait for that because rest all days, I have to prove myself as an actor. I didn’t know how to swim but thanks to FTII as they have coaches and I learned swimming at the FTII campus. FTII campus made me learn how a struggling actor can survive and that was the best thing that I learned at FTII campus.