Human Rights Day Exclusive: FTII Itanagar Students Affirm Boycott of Semester 2, Vow No Return Until Campus Complete

Itanagar/New Delhi- On Human Rights Day, students at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh's Jote are boycotting Semester 2 classes, framing their action as a defense of their right to quality education. Declaring "This is not a protest. This is self-defence," the first batch of Screen Acting, Documentary Cinema, and Screenwriting students extended their boycott following an online meeting on December 9, that yielded no results on core demands. Authorities offered only temporary arrangements instead of addressing infrastructural and academic failures at the institute, which operates as an extension of the Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) Kolkata.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has paused new admissions for 2025, as confirmed by RTI documents, due to the campus's unfitness. The 45 students admitted in 2024, when the 50-acre campus was 30% complete, continue to face these issues. "Our fight is not just for the completion of the module, but to create a viable filmmaking ecosystem, the core purpose of joining a film school," students stated.

Presently, the students are at their respective homes, as their first semester concluded on November 8. The vacation has been extended until December 14, with authorities urging them to return for the second semester; however, the batch has firmly resolved not to commence classes until the campus infrastructure is fully completed. In the batch of forty, 20 students are in the acting department, (now 17 as 3 have left the course and went to FTII Pune now), 10 in documentary and 15 enrolled for the screenwriting course. Only the screenwriting department will join for December classes, sources said.

December 9 Meeting Yields No Results: Temporary Fixes Proposed, Core Demands Unaddressed

The meeting included the SRFTI Vice-Chancellor, FTII Itanagar Dean, all Heads of Departments, and faculty. Students referenced demands from their November 11, letter (Screen Acting) and November 20, letter (Documentary Cinema). Authorities proposed repurposing spaces: the library’s ground floor as a dance studio, one CRT room as rehearsal space, and a small room above the gym as a makeup studio. No Preview Theatre was planned for Semester 2, and no timelines were given for studios, safety facilities, or technical departments.

On PR and branding, students requested a professional setup, website, Google listing, and official IDs. They were told students and teachers could manage social media. "Are we expected to build the institute’s brand while pursuing a national diploma?" students asked.

For medical support, students demanded a 24×7 doctor, ambulance, and basic safety, citing repeated incidents. These were not addressed with timelines or plans.

Responses focused on temporary adjustments: "We will convert this space…," "We can manage temporarily…," "This is not essential yet…," "A shared space will be created…." Students described this as "damage control" rather than education. Construction remains stalled, and authorities called student concerns "overthinking" and "unnecessary apprehension."

Students referenced a March 26, communication promising full campus handover by December 31, and a May 5, email setting November 1, as the "Final Handover" date. Neither deadline was met, leaving conditions similar to March 2025.

Unresolved questions include: Why admit students to an unfit campus? Why has CPWD failed on construction? Why break every deadline? Why should the first batch suffer academic loss?

The meeting provided no timelines, accountability, explanations for stalled construction, responses to faculty concerns, or serious consideration of branding issues. Students called it a "serious failure of leadership."

Student Grievances: Personal Accounts of Daily and Academic Challenges

Students from diverse backgrounds shared poignant, firsthand experiences of the campus's inadequacies, highlighting a year marked by survival struggles and compromised learning.

A Screen Acting student from Bihar, recalled his initial dismay: "When I first visited, there was no main gate, the entire institute looked like a construction site. Hostels weren't ready, so we lived in transit blocks and guest houses. Rainy season brought dirty water for drinking and bathing, frequent power cuts, and overpriced, poor-quality canteen food."

Academically, classes shifted to the library due to the non-functional Classroom Theatre (CRT), where a small, flat projector screen obscured views for back-row students amid constant outages. The library's limited books and subpar sound system made film screenings chaotic. The Acting Performance Lab was merely "a small room labeled as the Screen Acting Department," later partially equipped but lacking soundproofing. Essential facilities remain absent, no Preview Theatre, Sound Studio, dance or makeup studios, carpentry/costume departments, or adequately expert faculty. "Accommodation is comfortable, but essential amenities are few," he noted, encapsulating the first semester's relentless challenges.

A female student from Documentary Cinema emphasized isolation and peril: "We endured a full monsoon fearing landslides on bad, unfenced roads. Our only food source is the mess, no alternatives, no nearby hospital for emergencies." Despite high travel costs from afar, their sole consolation was promised quality education, yet "one semester passed in horrible makeshift arrangements, starting in a half-built room." Two protests secured a basic CRT, but verbal assurances of a complete campus by year's end proved false. "These aren't just buildings , they're tools for learning we've paid for. We're compromising on what and how we deserve to learn, losing precious time fighting for basic rights instead."

Another Screenwriting student, detailed pre-break chaos: "We crammed into Guest House and Transit Block rooms meant for faculty, two per room, with women sharing scant washrooms. Assurances of individual girls' hostel rooms post-break went unfulfilled." Infrastructure shortages hobbled academics, especially for film students lacking sound equipment and proper screening setups. Post-protest progress, like a temporary theatre, stalled quickly, leaving disarray. Travel to Itanagar is grueling; no dedicated doctor or clinic means scarce medicines. Unfinished roads, rusting gym gear causing injuries, and absent fencing heighten security risks. "Authorities' vague responses and unmet deadlines persist," he said.

A Screenwriting student from Bangalore, focused on disruptions: "Nightly power cuts hampered rest and academics, delaying submissions. Canned water went undelivered for days despite reminders; landslides injured students en route to classes and mess." Food crises peaked with fleeing cooks and insufficient meals. Half the semester unfolded in a makeshift library classroom, where rear students missed slides amid outages, derailing lectures, one film analysis devolved to mere discussion without viewing. "The projector screen was inadequate, far from the CRT's impact we saw post-protest," he reflected, underscoring how basics eroded focus and functionality.

Female students at FTII Itanagar have lived in constant fear due to grave security lapses in the Type 4 quarters where they reside, with main doors left unattended, allowing random strangers to wander in unchecked, forcing the girls themselves to confront and identify intruders, often lost souls at the wrong address because of absent signboards and zero perimeter security. Recruited guards are perpetually absent during the day and retire at 10 p.m. sharp, locking themselves inside the residential area while leaving the women vulnerable; they've been discovered drunk and unresponsive on multiple occasions when desperately needed. Heart-wrenching incidents compound the terror: many girls have been locked out of the hostel late at night, pounding futilely on doors with no aid forthcoming, and in one harrowing midnight episode, a drunken worker, covered in blood, stumbled into the quarters undetected amid the silence of sleeping staff and absent guards, prompting terrified students to rush him to the medical room alone, where the on-duty personnel ignored their frantic shouts and banging until finally stirring, only to make them wait interminably before a fellow student, untrained and shaken, administered first aid amid the chaos.

Despite repeated reports, no meaningful action has been taken, leaving these young women from distant homes gripped by unrelenting dread, their sense of safety shattered in what should be a sanctuary for learning, while even academic practicals suffered, acting modules hastily redesigned to bypass the need for studios, makeup, costumes, or equipment, and a week-long sound workshop devolving into confusion with irrelevant exercises, as the guest lecturer floundered without infrastructure, wasting precious opportunities and amplifying the overall atmosphere of neglect and peril.

Students’ core concern remains simple: “Don’t convert unfinished rooms. Build the infrastructure a national institute requires.” Students called the meeting a serious failure of leadership, noting that no timelines were given, no accountability was taken, no explanation was offered for stalled construction, no response was given to faculty concerns, and branding, website and official identity issues were trivialized.

“If new admissions are paused because the campus is unfit, why are we still being forced to suffer here?” Students believe that this is proof of the Government’s awareness of the non functional state of the campus since the beginning.

Despite official letters, two earlier academic halts, national media attention and RTIs exposing the truth, the Ministry of I&B has failed to intervene and take responsibility.

FTII Itanagar students remain united and demand: completion of all Screen Acting and Documentary Cinema infrastructure and not substitutions; proper technical departments (Props, Costume, Carpentry, Makeup Studio, Sound Studio and Studio Floor); functional medical support, safety and student services; immediate establishment of a professional PR and branding identity & team and all other demands as mentioned in the respective letters; a written time-bound implementation plan; relocation of Screen Acting batch if FTII Itanagar cannot meet national standards and provide solution at the Itanagar campus.

Until the Government and SRFTI accept responsibility and deliver national-institute-level training: No Classes, No Semester, No Makeshift Adjustments.

FTII Itanagar students continue to seek formal dialogue with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting but say action must now replace assurances.

“We will not start Semester 2 unless real work begins. No more adjusting. No more academic loss."