Only Gajendra Chauhan was approached for FTII post: RTI reply

Mumbai: As the FTII row continues, an RTI reply reveals that contrary to the government’s claims that no other candidates were approached for the position of council chief at the institute.

A right to Information query by Indian Express has revealed that only Gajendra Chauhan was approached for the post of the chairman of the institute. The newspaper filed an RTI asking for the names of those who had been approached with the offer of being president of FTII. The response said that no information was available about the candidates approached.

Read: I’m a soft target for the media, says Gajendra Chauhan

Recently, the government defended the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as head, saying it wanted someone who could devote time to the premier institute. This had come in the backdrop of reports that names of Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikanth were among those suggested for the post.

Prominent personalities like Anupam Kher, Rishi Kapoor, Ranbir Kapoor, Amol Palekar, Resul Pookutty, Kiran Rao, Rajkummar Rao, Sudhir Mishra, Sayeed Mirza and Piyush Mishra among others have voiced support for the students.