Filmmaker Shyam Benegal on Saturday urged Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan to intervene and save Whistling Woods International Institute for Film, Fashion and Communication, founded and run by director Subhash Ghai, from closure.
“Whistling Woods has, over the years, won a good reputation for being among the best institutions for film education in India. Not only does it attract students from different parts of India but also from countries abroad,” Benegal said in a communication to Chavan.
He said that closing such an institute of international repute would be an “unmitigated disaster” and bring credit neither to the Maharashtra government nor the nation.
Referring to the plan to create a cultural centre in its place, Benegal urged for better sense to prevail in the issue.
Ghai, in a recent note on the subject, said: “I felt helpless. Where do I go? We feel destroyed, shocked and numb. The government is being awarded with money and we are being punished so much for no fault of ours. Neither did [the] court point out any fault of ours.”
Options submitted
Referring to his attempts to save the institute, Ghai said he had submitted three workable options under law but there was no response from the state government for two years, and his attempts to meet Chavan also failed.
Ghai said that Culture Minister Sanjay Deotale had forwarded “his ambitious plan” to the media about opening a cultural university on the Whistling Woods campus. The ministry sent Ghai a notice on July 14 to pay Rs600 million (Dh36.7 million) and vacate the building by July 31.
Ghai said that the institute now has to pay the government more than Rs600 million and hand over its building which entails a Rs1 billion investment.
“We feel bad when we admit new students with a condition that we may not run our institute on this campus with five-star custommade facilities for cinema students after July 31,” he said.
Ghai said that Whistling Woods is still consistently ranked one of the top 10 film schools in the world.
Top Bollywood personalities have come out in support of Ghai and the institute and appealed to the government not to shut it down.
