Will make K R Narayanan Film institute a centre of excellence, says chairman, Saeed Akhtar Mir

KOTTAYAM: K R Narayanan Institute of Visual Science and Arts will be turned into a national centre of excellence, the newly-appointed Chairman of the institute, Saeed Akhtar Mirza has said. Inaugurating the Kottayam Film Festival here on Friday, a day after he was appointed as the Chairman of the prestigious institute, Mirza said Kerala is an experience.

Mirza took charge of the post which fell vacant after renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan resigned as the chairman days after its director, Shankar Mohan quit following complaints of caste discrimination against him by a section of students and staff. "The aim is to establish the institute as a national centre of excellence. Kerala is an experience...Here people show no discrimination between commercial or off-beat movies. People encourage good movie-making," Mirza said during the event on Friday.

The institute had been embroiled in controversy for some time after a section of students levelled charges against Mohan. Mohan had claimed allegations of caste discrimination were raised against him as he took a strong stand against corruption in the organisation. The state government had appointed a two-member panel, comprising former Chief Secretary K Jayakumar and former Vice-Chancellor of NUALS N K Jayakumar, to probe the matter.

They met the students and staff of the institute and collected the details with regard to the allegations which also include the undermining of reservation norms in students' admissions. Earlier, a Higher Education Department committee had recommended changing the director and conducting an investigation into the allegations against him. The issue came to the fore after some cleaning staff of the institute complained that the director's wife used to make them clean the toilets of her residence.

Gopalakrishnan, on the other hand, threw his weight behind Mohan by claiming that the allegations, of being anti-Dalit, indulging in caste discrimination among others, levelled against the former director of the institute were found to be barefaced lies in his enquiry. Gopalakrishnan too had come under severe criticism from a section of former students after he allegedly backed Mohan and made a "slacker" comment against one of the teachers who supported the students' protest. Mirza is an acclaimed filmmaker and the former chairman of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.