Itanagar: Students of the screen acting and documentary cinema courses at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Itanagar have refused to begin their second semester, alleging that the institute is operating from an “unfinished and non-functional campus” lacking essential academic infrastructure.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the students said they had already lost an entire semester due to what they described as a “collapsed academic environment”, citing non-operational studios, faulty classrooms, inadequate camera equipment, absence of a sound studio, poor medical support and limited access to basic amenities.
“The institute that was promised as a state-of-the-art national campus is still under construction,” the students alleged.
They said they had repeatedly written to the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) in Kolkata and the Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting since December last year, but no corrective action had been taken. The institute has already faced two academic shutdowns this year — in March and May — owing to the same unresolved issues, they added.
“After classes resumed in August, all infrastructure work stopped completely, with no intervention from the ministry,” the statement said.
The students further claimed that recent RTI replies and official communication between SRFTI and the ministry indicate that the campus remains incomplete and has been deemed unfit to admit new students in 2025, leading to a pause in admissions.
“If the institute is officially unfit for future students today, why were we admitted last year when the situation was worse?” they asked, accusing the ministry of treating them as “experimental subjects in a prematurely launched institution.”
Screen Acting students argue that core camera-acting training is impossible without functional studios and dedicated performance spaces, saying they have already lost an entire semester of specialised instruction and “will not allow the remaining three to be compromised”.
Students of Documentary Cinema echoed the concerns, stating that meaningful documentary education cannot take place without a sound studio, a usable studio floor and reliable fieldwork support. They warned that, under the current conditions, their diploma films risk falling short of global technical standards.
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They have sought a written response from the Ministry and SRFTI addressing four key demands: acknowledgment of all concerns, a clear time-bound action plan, a formal meeting with student representatives, and the creation of functional infrastructure—not temporary fixes—with immediate relocation if deadlines are missed again. Until then, the students have declared, “No classes. No Semester 2. No more suffering,” insisting they will not let their futures “die in scaffolding.”
