Prashant Pathrabe, a 1992 batch officer of IIS, has been given temporary charge as director of the FTII.
When contacted, Pathrabe had told PTI earlier in the evening that he had been gheraoed by the students, but was "safe".
Asked about the students' agitation in FTII, he said he will talk about it only after taking charge but added that it was a "difficult situation" and he hoped to do his best.
A three-member delegation of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry is at the FTII campus in Pune to hold discussions with the faculty, director and agitating students to find a solution to the crisis triggered by the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan at its chairman.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed the government over the arrest of protesting Film and Television Institute of India students, telling Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they are not criminals.
A local court on Wednesday granted bail to all the five students of Film and Television Institute of India, arrested for "gherao" and alleged illegal confinement of director Prashant Pathrabe on Monday evening.
A three-member team of I&B ministry officials is expected to visit the crisis-hit FTII soon to find a solution to the 70-day-old strike by the students
Accusing striking students of Film and Television Institute of India of insulting behaviour, using cruel interrogation and causing mental torture, its director Prashant Pathrabe on Wednesday said he approached the police as a deterrent step and rejected suggestion that action was taken under pressure from the information and broadcasting ministry.
In a midnight crackdown at the Film and Television Institute of India at Pune, five students were arrested by the police after the institute's director, Prashant Pathrabe lodged a complaint against them for detaining him on campus on Monday.
The FTII students, faculty and alumni have reacted sharply against the measure arguing that it conveyed a wrong impression of the situation at the Film and Television Institute of India and projected the students as "criminals or terrorists".
Expressing "shock" over police crackdown in Pune's Film and Television Institute of India, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday offered to provide space to agitating students for their classes in the capital.
The Deccan-Gymkhana police, which is probing the case, filed the chargesheet against 35 students in a court and the next hearing will be held on April 2, the prosecution said.
Police suspects that the packet must have been sent before Kumar's visit to Pune on April 24, when Pathrabe was the director of FTII.
Striking Film and Television Institute of India students called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention in resolving the 71-day-old crisis in the premier institute over the appointment of TV actor and Bharatiya Janata Party member Gajendra Chauhan as its chairman.
One of the three Film and Television Institute of India students on indefinite hunger strike has been hospitalised after his blood sugar levels dropped.
Meanwhile, the three-member committee constituted by the information and broadcasting ministry to examine the "ground situation" at Film and Television Institute of India submitted its report.
The govt also said that there would be no rethink on the government's decision of appointing Gajendra Chauhan as chairman.
TV actor Gajendra Chauhan is expected to take charge as FTII chairman on Thursday after an unprecedented and unsuccessful 193-day strike by the students opposing his appointment.
The meeting will take place at the office of the Films Division in Mumbai at 11 am on Tuesday, Vikas Urs, spokesman of the FTII Students' Association, told PTI.
Intensifying their protest, three students of the Film and Television Institute of India have gone on hunger strike demanding the resignation of Gajendra Chauhan.
On the warpath over the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII chairman, students of the premier institute on Monday threatened to launch a hunger strike for his ouster as the fast by a faculty member for "immediate resolution" of the crisis entered its third day on Monday.
'There is a storm of unrest brewing as a younger, more educated and independent India grows up. The government needs to realise that force may give them temporary respite but force never is the answer,' says filmmaker Suparn Verma.
The agitating students will meet officials from the information and broadcasting ministry on October 1.
The Information and broadcasting ministry, which has constituted a three-member committee to study the ground situation, meanwhile maintained that though it was willing to discuss and resolve issues the students were being inflexible.
Historically, Mumbai has been the cinema capital of India and for her to have a film museum of this kind was perhaps a natural happening.
Filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who as FTII chairman was himself gheraoed by students, gives us his point of view on the crisis facing India's premier film school.
Gajendra Chauhan is just one the many troubles that ail the national film institute. But all may not be lost yet.
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