Pune: Two students of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where injured when a crane they were using for filming collapsed. The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon in Diveagar in Maharashtra’s Raigad district.
The two students – Anuj Ujavane and N. Satish Kumar – who were shooting for their final diploma film, have been shifted to a hospital in Pune. Ujavane’s collar bone has been fractured, and Kumar reportedly fell on his head. Two other students working as light boys were also injured.
Students blame the FTII administration for hiring substandard equipment, alleging that the institution has turned a blind eye to their complaints about shoddy equipment, including one made as recently as this week. Some students of the 2017 batch, who are agitating against the FTII management, have also included this issue in their list of problems.
One student, on the condition of anonymity, told to The Wire that Ujavane and Kumar were on the crane at a height of 25-35 feet. “Ujavane got lucky as a heavy camera fell just one inch away from him.” After the accident, some initial medical aid was administered before both the students were shifted to Pune, nearly seven hours away. According to reports, an ARRI 535 analogous camera, which costs an estimated Rs 80 lakh to 1 crore, was also damaged in the accident.
Credit: Special arrangement
“As a cinematography student, Ujavane’s career is at stake since his collar bone is fractured – what if he is unable to carry the weight of a camera or move his hands properly? The institution is solely responsible for this as we had informed the concerned authorities several times about the faults in this particular equipment but to no avail,” the student said.
“The complaints against substandard equipment began in 2016 – emails, letters and representations in meetings were made. A senior official who only hires equipment from one particular vendor is to blame –this agency is notorious and no professionals ever hire from them,” said another student. According to him, another group found two weeks ago that the track was not hold straight and could have broken, causing a similar accident. They too had complained.”
This time around too, when it was known that the equipment had come from the same company, the issue was raised with the production manager on Monday. “But we found out that that the administration had already finalised the deal. From the shoot too we wrote mails, sent him photos to him and the director, but we got no response,” he added.
Credit: Special arrangement
He claimed that there used to be a technical committee that would look into such hiring but “currently there is no such mechanism”.
One of the injured students said, “I have written a mail to the administration saying that students were forced to continue shooting with faulty equipments (track and trolley), and as a result, a major accident took place. I called an assistant professor last night to complain, but no effort was made.”
The Wire tried to reach out to FTII Director Bhupendra Kainthola and registrar Varun Bhardwaj, but neither have responded yet.