Arunachal: FTII Itanagar Students Boycott Semester 2
Screen Acting and Documentary Cinema students refuse to resume academic session, alleging incomplete infrastructure, stalled construction and academic paralysis.
ITANAGAR- Students of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Itanagar have refused to begin their second semester, alleging that they are being forced to study in an “unfinished” and “academically collapsed” campus that the government itself has deemed unfit for new admissions. students of the institute stated in a press statement.
In their press statement, sTudents of the Screen Acting and Documentary Cinema courses at FTII Itanagar, the country’s third national film institute, announced a boycott of Semester 2, claiming they have already lost an entire academic term due to poor infrastructure and disrupted teaching.
They allege that despite being promised a state-of-the-art campus, they were made to study in a building still under construction, without functional studios, a preview theatre, sound studio, adequate cameras, proper classrooms, medical support or even reliable access to basic amenities.
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The students say they have repeatedly raised these concerns with Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI) Kolkata and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting since December 2024, including two earlier academic halts in March and May 2025.
According to them, each time they resumed classes on assurances of speedy development, “nothing changed on ground”, and after August 2025 even the ongoing infrastructural work stopped while the ministry “did not intervene”.
Citing recent RTI replies and official correspondence between SRFTI and the ministry, the students say the government has now formally acknowledged that the Itanagar campus is incomplete and cannot admit new students in 2025, leading to a pause in fresh admissions for want of infrastructure.
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They question the contradiction of halting future admissions on these grounds while continuing to keep the current batch in the same conditions, alleging they have been treated as “experimental subjects” in a prematurely launched institute.
Screen Acting students argue that core camera-acting pedagogy cannot be delivered without proper studios and acting spaces, asserting that they have already lost one full semester of specialised training and will not allow the remaining three to be “ruined”.
Documentary Cinema students similarly state that meaningful documentary teaching is impossible without a sound studio, studio floor and consistent support for fieldwork, warning that their diploma films risk failing global technical standards if the current conditions persist.
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The press note also claims that students attempted to meet the Secretary, Information & Broadcasting, during the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa but were ignored, despite senior officials being present. They allege that while the government has frozen new admissions to protect its reputation, it has left the existing batch “to suffer inside a broken institute”.
Declaring their “stand,” the students say they will not begin Semester 2 until minimum academic conditions are met and, if that is not possible in Itanagar, they must be shifted to a functional campus immediately. Stressing that they are “not opposing the institute” but trying to save it, they describe themselves as the first batch of FTII Itanagar and insist they “refuse to be the forgotten batch”.
They have demanded a written response from the Ministry and SRFTI covering four points: acknowledgement of all concerns, a time-bound action plan, a proper meeting with student representatives, and delivery of real infrastructure rather than temporary fixes, along with immediate relocation if deadlines are missed again. Until then, the students have resolved: “No classes. No Semester 2. No more suffering,” saying they will not allow their futures to “die in scaffolding”.
