Jaggi Vasudev

FTII

lecture

Isha Foundation

Sadhguru’s visit to Film and Television Institute of India () has been cancelled at the last minute. While the official reason for the cancellation has not been revealed, students are claiming that the programme has been called off in view of recent protests by them.The Sadhguru is at present on a nationwide tour in which he is visiting various educational institutes. He was set to visit FTII as a part of this tour on Wednesday. The event has, however, been cancelled just a day before. While students are protesting against the FTII management regarding various issues, they had also raised an objection over the interaction session with Sadhguru and had questioned how thewas relevant to a film institute.With the FTII preparing for the Sadhguru’s visit, Mirror had reported on September 15 about the student protests against the whitewashing at Shantaram Pond. The institute thereafter took a decision to back out of the whitewashing plans, but continued cleaning Shantaram Pond.Not giving the actual reason for cancellation of the programme, the director of the institute confirmed the news.Bhupendra Kainthola, director, FTII said, “The interaction session by Sadhguru has been cancelled and we got to know this on Tuesday. We have also informed students regarding this. It was an interaction session with Sadhguru on the youth-related topics.”Students, however, were clueless about the reason. Speaking to Mirror, a member of the students’ association said, “We had received an official communication from the administration asking us to remain present at the programme from 2.30 pm. But on Tuesday evening we got a message saying that the event has been cancelled. No official reason for the cancellation has, however, been cited in the mail. Our guess is that the administration backtracked in view of protests from the students.”Interestingly a general body meeting of the students’ representatives was held on Monday night to discuss the stand to be taken by the students. It was in this programme that a representative of the organising team informed the members that the event has been cancelled by Sadhguru due to the ongoing protests on the campus. A student representative from the organising team, who did not wish to be the named, said, “Sadhguru was informed about the current situation in the campus and was also told that students were not keen on attending the programme. It was after this that he cancelled the programme stating that he does not want to force an interaction with the students.”Rahul Dubey, spokesperson,, said, “As final confirmation of the event ‘Youth and Truth’ at the FTII did not come in time, Sadhguru’s time was committed to other engagements. We are sorry for the disappointment it may have caused to certain people. We wish to do the event in the near future.”