Mumbai-based critic, columnist, editor and author Deepa Gahlot writes about the early experiences of FTII graduates in the Bombay industry

As some graduates from the early batches of FTII came to Mumbai to work in films, they were not exactly welcomed with open arms. Producers would shoo them away from their offices, and technicians already entrenched in the industry, looked upon them with suspicion and skepticism. Could their three-year training replace thirty years of experience? They were not allowed to enter shooting sets, and there was general hostility towards them.

In those days cinematographers used to keep things secret from their assistants, and here was a bunch of trained, well read, well informed youngsters ready to replace them-- they met with resistance in most places. Cinematographers Kamlakar Rao and Pramod Mital (both batch of 1968) were invited by fellow student Prem Sagar (son of Ramanand Sagar) to join his father’s production company Sagar Arts, when the film Geet (1970) was being made. K.Vaikunth was the cameraman and had his own team of assistants and it took time for a rapport to develop between the crew and Prem Sagar’s ‘FTII friends’. Geet was a hit, Rao and Mital were well entrenched in the Sagar group, but when Rao got an offer to work independently, he accepted and Mital went along with him.

The film was Saanjh Ke Baad Savera by S.J.S Pachhi, with Shibu Mitra, also an FTII graduate as Associate Director. The actors were from the FTII too - Danny Denzongpa, Baldev Khosa, Subhash Ghai along with ‘outsiders’ Sameer Khan and Sulakshana Pandit. The film was eventually shelved, but director Ram Dayal, happened to see a song and asked who the cameraman was. He sent a message to Rao for a film to be directed by Feroz Chinoy from the FTII, the editor was Mahendra Batra, the actors were all from FTII too - Anil Dhawan, Radha Saluja, Shatrughan Sinha, Rakesh Pandey. Do Raha was the first film that actually advertised the fact that it was made by FTII graduates, at a time when they were still unwelcome in the mainstream industry. “It was a risk for him,” say Rao and Mital. “It was a bold subject about adultery and also technically experimental, since we shot on actual locations and made do with minimal equipment, since we were in no position to demand anything.” “If the boom man complained, the producer would say, ‘they are mad, forgive them.’ By today’s standards, the approach to cinematography was primitive, still when we see the film today, we are surprised how we managed. Undoubtedly out FTII knowledge helped. Technically the film was very different from what had been seen till then.”

Luckily Do Raha was a hit, followed by another success Chetana also with a lot of FTII cast and crew. “These two films changed the way the industry looked at FTII graduates. The papers discussed out technical talent and the visual excellence of our films and after this the FTII contribution was recognized and we were accepted.”

This article has been taken from Under the Wisdom Tree, the commemorative book of the Wisdom Tree Film Festival held at Pune, 2003.