Government decides to change FTII director, Prashant Pathrabe to replace DJ Narain

NEW DELHI: Amid filmstars including Salman Khan openly supporting the students in their protest against Gajendra Chauhan, the new chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India, the government has decided to replace the director of the institute, DJ Narain, with Prashant Pathrabe, former head of the National Film Archives of India.

It is reliably learnt that ministry officials had reprimanded Narain in the last few days over matters worsening at the premier film making institute. "The director should have certainly done more to ensure discipline on the campus. He did nothing to prevent the prolonged stay of the students at the students and the continuous strikes," a senior ministry official told ET.

Narain, who according to FTII sources is quite popular with the students, had taken over the institute in 2011. His term ends later this month and sources told ET that the government was not keen on giving an extension to the director.

A member of a pop band, the Aryans, Narain belongs to the 1990 batch of the Indian Information Service (IIS). An alumnus of IIT Kanpur, he has served as professor at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication.

Meanwhile, FTII registrar UC Bodake has written to the information and broadcasting ministry complaining about the increasing amount of "indisciplinary" activities on the campus by students and continuous protests in the last few years that have led to administration failing and made the lives of officials such as him difficult.

In his letter, the registrar has also blamed heads of the institute who did not take steps to instilll discipline. A senior official of the ministry said the complaint is being looked into.

Pathrabe has been in the media field for more than 18 years, having previously worked in Doordarshan News and AIR News in Mumbai. He has also been spokesperson for Southern Command, Pune. Pathrabe, a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, joined the Indian Information Service in 1993 after a stints in public and private sector companies. He is currently with the PIB division in Pune.