Prashant Pathrabe, former director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), and the current director of Press Information Bureau (PIB), has been given additional charge as the director of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Pathrabe replaces director of the institute DJ Narain, whose tenure gets completed today, July 17. About four years ago, Narain, an Indian Information Service (IIS) officer of 1990 batch, had joined the institute. A year ago, he was given an extension of one year.

Pathrabe brings with him an experience of nearly two decades in the field of media and has worked with Doordarshan News and AIR News in Mumbai in the past. After a few stints in private and public sector companies, Pathrabe joined the Indian Information Service in 1993.

Pathrabe has joined the institute at a time when the institute is dealing with a strike, launched by the students over a month ago against the appointment of BJP member Gajendra Chauhan as chairman of the institute’s governing council. Apart from Chauhan’s appointment, students are also protesting against the appointment of a few members of the FTII Society, namely Narendra Pathak, Anagha Ghaisas, Shailesh Gupta and Rahul Solapurkar. On July 3, a 10-member team of FTII students and alumni held a meeting with the I&B Ministry members, including Arun Jaitley. But since their main demands were not met, they chose to continue the strike.

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