Pune's Film Institute To Propose Fee Hike, Age Limit; Students Oppose

​Pune: The administration of Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) here would be proposing a fee hike and upper age-limit of 25 years for admissions at today's meeting of its academic council in Mumbai.

But the proposal has not gone down well with a group of students who said the administration was trying to earn "profit" and make the institute "commercial".

"The rationale behind proposing hike in fee structure is that for five years the fees were not increased as they should have been. In fact, in 2010, the fee of acting course, which is self-financing, was Rs. 1.75 lakh (per annum) however, the then administration brought it down to Rs. 48,000," said the FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola.

"Ideally, the fee of each course should be increased by 10 per cent every year, however no attempt to revise fees was made in the past and CAG audit passed strictures that the fees at FTII were irrational," he said.

For the acting course, the administration was going to propose the fee of Rs. 3.40 lakh p.a. he said.

The fees of the four specialised courses -- direction, cinematography, editing and sound recording -- was earlier Rs. 33,000 and over the years it was marginally increased to Rs. 48,000, he said.

"Ideally, if 10 per cent hike is effected every year, the fee for these courses should be Rs. 64,000," Mr Kainthola said.

FTII had studied the fee structures of other institutes such as the National School of Drama and National Institute of Design before finalising the proposal, he said.