Dreams and the Dawn of FTII

In 'The Maker of Filmmakers', Radha Chadha traces how the legacy of Prabhat Studio shaped the Film Institute of India and the professionalisation of Indian cinema; Excerpts:

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The newly opened Film Institute of India lay a few kilometers away from the city centre of Poona, on a scenic 21-acre plot of land that had once housed the Prabhat Film Company. A wide tree-lined road cut through the middle of the campus, pulling you in at the entrance, and rising gently as it extended all the way to the base of a hillside at the far end. On the right side of this road were four of the five erstwhile studios of Prabhat, the most imposing being Studio No. 1—one of the biggest in Asia—its massive exterior wall covered with lush green creepers, its cavernous insides containing a labyrinthine structure of suspended catwalks, dangling wires and outsized lights. Studio No. 1 was at the heart of the Institute, flanked by buildings with classrooms, teachers' offices and technical facilities. Leading up to it was the mango tree that would acquire mythical status as the "Wisdom Tree".

Across from the tree was the canteen, and up ahead, in a small cottage, the Principal's office. Beyond the studio buildings lay a village pond, a forest preserve, and vast open spaces for outdoor shoots. The air was cool and crisp on the August day when the first batch of students arrived on campus. Sunlight streamed through the leaves. Birds twittered. It was the kind of idyllic setting you might find in a film. Or as David Lean, who visited in the early years, put it: "What a lovely place to learn our wonderful profession."

The filmmaker V. Shantaram, who had briefly been Jagat's boss at Films Division, was one of the pioneering spirits behind Prabhat, which he had founded in 1929, along with his partners V. Damle, S. Fattelal, K. Dhaibar and S. Kulkarni. Some of them still lived in bungalows neighbouring the Institute, and we got to know them and their families—Fattelal's grandson would come over to our home to play with my brothers.