Under fire for having appointed Gajendra “Yudhishthir” Chauhan as the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) chief, the Centre today struggled to defend its selection amid indications of differences between I&B Minister Arun Jaitley and his deputy Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on the issue. Adding fuel to the fire was a tweet from Oscar-winner Resul Pookutty who claimed that when he met Jaitley as part of a delegation representing the FTII on July 3, he “told us in the meeting that we haven’t made the best of choice but as a Govt we can’t retract!” Not just @AnupamPkher Mr.@arunjaitley also told us in the meeting that we haven't made the best of choice but as a Govt.we can't retract! — resul pookutty (@resulp) July 10, 2015 Top government sources acknowledged that Jaitley had expressed the opinion that Chauhan was not the”best of choice”. “However, with many eminent people having turned down the offer to take up this post, it was a very limited list of people that the I&B ministry was left with. And Chauhan fit the bill mainly for fact that he agreed to make himself available full-time at the institute,” they said. [related-post] Rathore, too, maintained the same line today. “The government wanted the Governing Council, including the chairman, to be people who could commit time for the development of the institute,” he said. Sources said that the government was still open to talks on all matters concerning the FTII, adding that this “was not an ego match” for the ministry. However, they added that replacing Chauhan with another candidate “would be the last option”. Sources added that while the ministry had shortlisted noted filmmakers such as Gulzar, Shyam Benegal and Adoor Gopalakrishnan for this post last year, it had also prepared a separate list with the names of Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth and filmmakers Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Rajkumar Hirani. However, they added, the office of Rathore chose to ignore those names — only Hirani was appointed as a member of the FTII society — and drew up fresh lists. Sources said that even Hirani was considered for the top job but he opted out when he was told that he would be required full-time at the institute. Meanwhile, industry opinion appeared to be mounting against Chauhan’s appointment with more film personalities, including Rishi Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Piyush Mishra, Ranbir Kapoor and Nawazuddin Siddiqui, throwing their weight behind the protesting FTII students. Chauhan, who was also in the reckoning for a job in the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) some months ago, is believed to have secured the FTII post by virtue of his BJP links — he had served as a joint convenor for culture in the party and was a special invitee on its national executive for two terms.
