Back to School!
Afternoon, July 21st 2006

You’ve always wondered about the dazzling world of cinema and wanted to be a part of it. But you didn’t know how to go about it. Now you can! The emerging trend of film schools will help you. What’s best is that it’s in your neighborhood too. Previously there was the Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) which offered courses in the various streams of filmmaking. But a few seats couldn’t cater to the growing demand in the youth for this education. However, now the scenario has changed completely. There are premium film schools which offer film studies in India as opposed to the earlier trend of going abroad for film education.

Recently, showman Subhash Ghai’s film school in Film City, ‘Whistling Woods’ opened to students for film education on an international scale. This is something like the New York Film school. There’s also the ‘Digital Academy’ at Andheri (E) headed by the industry veteran Prayag Raaj. This offers education in technical areas like cinematography, sound recording, among other comprehensive packages. There’s the ‘Zee Institute of Media Arts’ (ZIMA) backed by the media major Zee Ltd. which has the animation course as its USP along with its regular courses. There is the expertise backed ‘Arena Multimedia’ which offers film foundation & scriptwriting in its syllabus among other areas. There are also technical based institutes which offer training in Avid Editing & Post Production like the Big Bee Info media, again at Andheri (E). This is headed by Mr. Vijay Vyas. If you idolize George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, one can learn Computer Graphics and SFX at the Maya Academy under the tutelage of Ketan Mehta and Deepa Sahi. The Mumbai university offers a dgree in film studies & film evaluation. If you’re a wannabe actor then there are acting schools ranging from Anupam Kher, Kishore Namit Kapoor, Roshan Taneja, Asha Chandra, and Geeta Khanna, to name a few. The FTII too is reviving its acting course. If you are financially backed you can always head overseas in prestigious colleges like the ‘Tisch School of Arts’, or ‘The London Film School’. We spoke to few experts. Prof: F. R. Khan ‘ex-FTII’ and present faculty member of cinematography at the ‘Xaviers Institute of Communications’ (XIC) and the ‘Arena Multimedia’ says. ‘These courses give them a basic understanding of the technical medium which helps them inpracticla filmmaking.’ He recommends FTII as the premium film school. Rajan Kothari ex-FTII, cinematographer of films like Damul and Zubeida and now faculty at Ghai’s Whistling Woods International says, ‘Film education is a must since the film industry is growing at an enormous pace and film schools will hone the skills of the students’. Pankaj Roy, an FTII alumnus who regularly conducts filmmaking workshops recommends workshops for the economically challenged & working professionals ‘who can learn filmmaking, the grammar, and the craft as per their situation”. But some experts feel it’s better to do a basic course first room communications institutes like XIC, JAMIA, MILLIA, etc. If you are geographically challenged. There’s also the Satyajit Ray film school at Kolkata, and the Asian Film School at Noida. So go and portray your dream on celluloid!