Days after winning the National Award for the Best Film for his directorial debut Rocketry: The Nambi Effect, R Madhavan has now been appointed as the new President of the Film & Television Institute of India. The actor has replaced filmmaker Shekhar Kapur in the position. (Also Read: R Madhavan on Rocketry winning National Award: We had not won anything till the end, had almost lost hope)
Madhavan announced as FTII President
Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur took to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening to announce that Madhavan has been appointed as the new FTII President.
He wrote, “Heartiest congratulations to @ActorMadhavan ji on being nominated as President of @FTIIOfficial and Chairman of the governing council. I’m sure that your vast experience & strong ethics will enrich this institute, bring positive changes, & take it to a higher level. My best wishes to you.”
Madhavan reposted Anurag’s tweet and wrote in his response on X, “Thank you so very much for the honor and kind wishes @ianuragthakur Ji. I will do my very best to live up to all the expectations. (namaste emojis)”
The official Instagram handle of FTII also reposted the two tweets.
About FTII
FTII, situated in Pune, Maharashtra, falls under the purview of the Central Government’s Information & Broadcasting Ministry. Established in 1960, the institute offers courses in film editing, direction cinematography, audiography, acting, art direction, and computer graphics and animation.
Shekhar Kapur was the last FTII President. Actor Roshan Taneja was the first one, followed by the likes of cartoonist RK Laxman, filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mahesh Bhatt, BP Singh, Saeed Akhtar Mirza, actors Girish Karnad, Vinod Khanna, Gajendra Chauhan, Anupam Kher, and screenwriter UR Ananthamurthy.
Actors like Jaya Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Raza Murad, Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Mukesh Khanna, Rajkummar Rao, Danny Denzongpa, Rakesh Bedi, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Satish Kaushik, and Tom Alter have been part of the institute’s notable alumni.
About R Madhavan
Madhavan is a Tamil and Hindi film actor. He made his Tamil cinema debut with Mani Ratnam’s 2000 romantic film Alaipayuthey. The next year, he made his Bollywood debut along with Dia Mirza in Gautham Vasudev Menon’s cult romantic film Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein. He made his directorial debut playing former ISRO scientist Nambi Narayanan in Rocketry: The Nambi Effect last year, that fetched him his first National Award for Best Film.
