Jollang-Rakap (Jote), Arunachal Pradesh — The verdant hills of Arunachal Pradesh were meant to witness a new chapter in the cinematic education of India. The Film and Television Institute Arunachal Pradesh (FTI ArP), established as the country’s third national film institute under the aegis of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), Kolkata, promised to be a cultural and educational milestone for the North-East. Yet, for the inaugural batch of students, it has been a journey marked by anxiety, disappointment, and institutional neglect.
More than a year since the institution’s formal launch, its students are on an indefinite academic halt as of 15th May 2025, citing gross infrastructural deficiencies, administrative lapses, and unfulfilled promises. Despite its status as a central government institution under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, FTI ArP’s reality remains starkly disconnected from its projected prestige.
FTI ArP was established with the objective to nurture storytellers, actors, and filmmakers from the culturally rich but historically neglected North-Eastern region. It offers postgraduate diploma programs in Screen Acting, Screenwriting, and Documentary Cinema. However, students report a deeply disheartening start to their academic journey.
The problems began even before classes started. Students were made to wait nearly five months after their admission without a joining date, effectively putting their lives on hold. Since joining in March 2025, they have faced unsafe living conditions, dysfunctional classrooms, and a complete absence of basic infrastructure like safe drinking water, medical assistance, and internet connectivity.
“We are the first batch of a national-level institute, yet we have no identity—no logo, no ID cards, not even a website. It’s like we don’t exist,” says a student representative.
Despite repeated letters, meetings, and even an earlier academic halt in March 2025, most student grievances remain unresolved:
January 2025: The institute acknowledges student concerns but offers no timeline for resolution.
March 2025: Classes begin without key facilities like CRTs (Classroom Theatres), technical equipment, gym, or library access.
April 2025: Students are promised completed infrastructure by month’s end. As of late May, the CRT building is still incomplete.
15th May 2025: With no visible action or accountability, students initiate a second and indefinite academic strike.
What started as bureaucratic inefficiency has evolved into a serious mental health crisis among students. Living without basic necessities—frequent power cuts, lack of clean drinking water, unreliable internet, unsafe campus conditions—has pushed many into anxiety, frustration, and in some cases, depression.
“This is supposed to be a film institute. Yet, we lose electricity mid-way through screenings. We have no editing stations, no functional shooting floors, not even a proper library,” says another student.
Lack of Wi-Fi in the girls’ hostel, repeated thefts due to inadequate campus security, and the absence of 24x7 medical assistance in a remote and reptile-prone location have only worsened the living conditions.
FTI ArP doesn’t just lack facilities—it lacks legitimacy. As of now:
The institution has not been formally inaugurated.
There is no appointed full-time campus Director.
Administrative hiring is outsourced to local DC offices, resulting in underqualified and temporary staff.
No official website or email system exists for students or faculty.
This absence of institutional identity has left students vulnerable and voiceless.
The protesting students have issued a comprehensive list of immediate demands, including:
Completion of core infrastructure: CRT, preview theatre, shooting floors, digital blocks.
Reliable 24x7 electricity and internet access.
Provision of clean drinking water and functional water coolers.
Campus security through CISF deployment.
Appointment of a full-time Director and trained administrative staff.
Issuance of ID cards, emails, and formal digital presence.
Access to editing workstations and academic software.
Postal arrangements for courier deliveries in the isolated campus.
They have clearly stated: No second semester will begin unless these basic facilities are in place.
In a powerful press statement released on 18th May 2025, students wrote:
“This second academic halt is not symbolic. It is a refusal to continue learning in conditions that are physically unsafe, emotionally draining, and academically untenable. We demand the dignity we were promised when we joined this national institution.”
These students are not asking for privileges. They are demanding the minimum that any educational institute should provide—safety, infrastructure, and respect. For a government that often touts development in the North-East, the situation at FTI ArP raises uncomfortable questions about how much of that is mere rhetoric.
FTI ArP was envisioned as a beacon for artistic excellence in North-East India. Instead, it now symbolizes the consequences of half-baked policy execution and institutional neglect. These young artists came to FTI ArP with dreams of storytelling, cinema, and cultural empowerment. Today, they are forced to fight just to study in dignified conditions.
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