New Building of FTII Acting Department Inaugurated; Studios Named After Om Puri And Tom Alter.
For the first time since Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was established in 1960, the famed Dept of Screen Acting now has an exclusive new building block of its own.
Sh B P Singh, President of FTII Society and Chairman of FTII Governing and Academic Councils inaugurated the block in the presence of Bhupendra Kainthola, Director, FTII, Benjamin Gilani, Mentor,Dept of Screen Acting and Siddharth Shasta,HoD,Dept of Screen Acting.
The new building consists of two fully equipped air conditioned studios with one of them having full mirror walls which are essential for movement and dance classes. Both studios have wooden flooring and have been designed with perfect acoustics. In the presence of Nandita Puri and Ishan Puri,wife and son of Om Puri as well as Jamie Alter,son of Tom Alter, the Studios were named after deceased FTII acting luminaries Om Puri (Padma Shri, Alumnus of FTII and Famous Actor) and Tom Alter (Padma Shri, Alumnus of FTII, former Head of Acting Department and Famous Actor).
"Screen Acting is one of the oldest courses at FTII. It was conceived in the year 1963 and has since produced many legends; Jaya Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Mithun Chakraborty, Asrani, Pental and Rajkummar Rao to name a few. So far the Department was spread over various building blocks --- office in one building, studios in another and classrooms in yet another building. Now, the Acting Department has got a home of its own--- a new building block consisting of ground plus two floors.
The new building will enhance the glory and legacy of one of the most celebrated departments of the FTII -- the Department of Screen Acting." said Bhupendra Kainthola, Director, FTII Pune.
The new building has an open space which can be utilised for Yoga and other acting classes. It also has an amphitheatre where students can perform their monologues, scenes or even a full length plays for the live audience. These performance spaces are required for training the young actors in various skills. The overall design of the building has very good ventilation with ample natural light and fresh air.