Celebrating Women Alumni of FTII over Six Decades

Arunaraje Patil, eminent filmmaker and FTII alumnus, released the book “Balancing the Wisdom Tree - An Anthology of FTII's Women Alumni” compiled by Professor Gauri Durga Chakraborty on the occasion of International Women’s Day at the International Kolkata Book Fair.

The book that acknowledges and celebrates the inspirations, challenges and achievements of the women alumni of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is a treat for films lovers, film professionals and researchers.

Published by FTII in association with Publication Division, the book has three segments which include conversations between alumni, personal reflections, and the work of 503 women who graduated from FTII between 1965-2016.

Recording FTII alumni achievers
Speaking during the book release function, Arunaraje Patil emphasized the requirement of recording the achievements of FTII’s women alumni in different fields such as direction, scriptwriting, cinematography, sound recording, production design, acting, production and animation,
Prof Gauri Chakraborty, who is an FTII alumni and currently heads the Film Programme at Times School of Media, said “Work started in November 2020 and continued for more than a year. It was an arduous task to assemble the section on bio notes of all women alumni but the significance of registering the diversity of work by these women was important to the context of archiving.”

She observed, “The material in the book will lead more researchers to look at the microcosmic aspects of gender and can create multiple possibilities of extending discussion on presence on women in mainstream and independent filmmaking.”

Inspiration for women filmmakers According to her, “The book will give film lovers an opportunity to know the inspirations behind training in film from the first woman graduate Parvati Menon in 1966 to director Payal Kapadia, who was awarded at the Cannes in 2021.”

Prof Chakraborty also explained the rationale behind the book’s name. She said, “The book instigates thought to move beyond gender equity and towards creating gender balance – and hence the title Balancing the Wisdom Tree.”

The book’s foreword has been written by the internationally acclaimed actor and FTII alumnus Shabana Azmi.

The book release function at Kolkata was attended among others by the Director General (East Zone) Bhupendra Kainthola, FTII Registrar, Sayyid Rabeehashmi, Associate Professor, Vikram Varma and three FTII alumni - Reena Mohan, Gissy Michael and Dorothy Varma.