5 students arrested, FIR against 17 but still FTII Director plays victim

Five students are picked up by police from FTII campus in a midnight crackdown. 17 protesting students have non-bailable offense slapped against them.

But when FTII Director Prashant Pathrabe, who filed the complaint against the students held a press conference today, he claimed that it is he whose rights have been violated.

Playing the victim card, Pathrabe who was appointed as the director exactly a month earlier, said that he was held hostage for nine hours and tortured both verbally and physically.

He also accused the students of pre-planning the whole episode. He said: "It was a pre-planned drama. The students wanted to show me and the institute in a bad light. Tolerating it would only mean that more such things can be expected from them in future. I was forcefully detained and tortured for more than 9 hours. I am in a state of mental shock and will take couple of days to be normal."

In one month of his service, Pathrabe has ended up in several confrontations with the students -- from orders to vacate hostels to ultimatum to end the strike on Gajendra Chouhan's appointment as chairperson.

However, on August 17 students gheraoed him in his office after he went ahead with the assessment of unfinished film projects of 2008 batch. Students claimed that the move was politically motivated and Pathrabe was acting according to government diktats. When Pathrabe refused to revoke the assessment, Pathrabe claimed students held him hostage.

On the issue of project assessment, Pathrabe said: "Students were given time to complete their projects but they failed. We had to start with the assessment and thus we chose the oldest batch in the campus. It was also decided that students will be given chance to complete their assignment even after the assessment."