FTII: Why students arrested at midnight, asks Bollywood

At least five students of the premier Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, were arrested late on Tuesday, and charged with unlawful assembly, rioting, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation.

At least five students of the premier Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune, were arrested late on Tuesday, and charged with unlawful assembly, rioting, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation. The police took 15 agitating students to the police station and formally arrested five of them.

Rahul Gandhi interacts with students at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune. (Photo: @OfficeofRG on Twitter)

The protesting students had "gheraoed" the institute's

director Prashant Pathrabe

on Monday to protest against "irrational and unjustified" assessment of some incomplete diploma projects. An FIR was lodged against them based on a complaint filed by Pathrabe.

Reacting strongly to the

midnight crackdown

, Bollywood took to Twitter to slam the police and government. Oscar winner musician-filmmaker Resul Pookutty, who had visited FTII on Tuesday, tweeted, "Students are anti national is a word used by one of the selected society member. So I just repeated it.!Don't connect that with anything else. Arrest?! In the middle of the night?! I do not think the police have followed the rules laid out by SC in making arrests! My debate is the....the time and manner in which it is done! A senior official from I&B ministry talked to me at length at 8pm about how to solve the impasse& he said they are coming to #FTII in a ......couple of days.then why this arrest in the middle of the night...?! That too including girls?!"

Filmmakers Anand Gandhi, Shekhar Kapur; actors Shilpa Shukla, Swara Bhaskar and other Bollywood celebs also tweeted their views.

Read: FTII director held captive