Situation at FTII will be better under Anupam Kher: Sharmila Tagore

Kher, 62, was appointed FTII chairman on October 11, succeeding Gajendra Chauhan who had a controversial tenure as the head of the Pune-based institute.

Veteran Bollywood actor Sharmila Tagore has said the situation at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) will improve now that actor Anupam Kher has been appointed its chairperson. “Anupam is a good actor and a theatre artiste. I think the situation in the institute will be better under him,” Tagore told PTI.

Anupam Kher replaced Gajendra Chauhan at FTII.

Kher, 62, was appointed FTII chairman on October 11, succeeding Gajendra Chauhan who had a controversial tenure as the head of the Pune-based institute.

Talking about the political nature of appointments in government institutes and organisations, the Padma Bhushan recipient said such appointments were done every where. “There are political appointments. If there’s a UPA government, they would want people they trust. If there’s any other administration, they would want their people to be there. This happens,” said Tagore.

The 72-year-old actor, who succeded Kher as the chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), also said being the Censor chief was not a “popularity contest”. “This is not the way to get famous,” said Tagore without naming the previous CBFC chairperson, Pahlaj Nihalani, who courted controversy on a number of occasions.

The censor board’s guidelines are also “difficult to interpret”, Tagore said, but added that most of it depends on the chairperson. The veteran actor, who served as CBFC chief from 2004 to 2011, said there are established categories for films in the CBFC but they needed to be updated keeping in mind the changing times. “There’s social media today, where you have innumerable ways of information dissemination and it should be considered while updating the censorship policy at the CBFC,” Tagore said.

Recalling the controversies during her time as the censor board chief, Tagore said she faced problems in certifying films such as Omkara, Ghajini, Aaja Nachle and Jodhaa Akbar.