NEW DELHI -- When a Mumbai film school asks potential students to prove their tax status, you can be sure that its courses are expensive.
But applicants for the Whistling Woods Intl. school, which charges $30,000 for a two-year diploma course in directing, comfortably outnumber the 150 available places.
On that count, the school, the $15 million brainchild of Bollywood director-producer Subhash Ghai, is already a success -- even before the first graduation next month.
Ghai wanted to build the institute partly as a means of giving back to the industry, partly as a means of grooming talent for his own Mukta Arts production shingle, but mostly because he felt the alternatives were inadequate.
"The Film and Television Institute of India (in Pune) taught us about European cinema. But how many of its graduates are names in the industry today?" Ghai asks. "Our USP is that our faculty are active industry professionals." Industry stars who have already taught there include veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah, cinematographer Rajen Kothari and scriptwriter Anjum Rajabali.
Meghna Ghai-Puri, Ghai's daughter and president of WWI, stoutly defends the institute against charges that its pupils are from the uppermost layer of society and will be out of touch. "We are elite, but not elitist," she insists. "We were founded by the industry. We teach the art, technique and business of cinema. We give students the skills to make arthouse and mainstream, documentaries and shorts. And we prepare them to find their own voice anywhere in the world. While Bollywood may not cross over internationally yet, talent certainly will."
The striking, purpose-built facility is smack in the middle of Film City, meaning there were controversies as to why government land should be granted for a private facility. But it has already meant that students have been able to intern with companies such as Adlabs and Percept Pictures that are literally on their doorsteps.
School also has a determinedly international outlook. Curriculum was designed with help from the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and its dean on a two-year contract was American Kurt Inderbitzin. His replacement is also certain to be another non-Indian. While WWI has no affiliation with an Indian university, credits can be transferred to Deakin and Griffith universities in Australia and Seneca College in Canada. It also has organized screenwriting workshops in collaboration with the British Council.
Award-winning student Maharsh Shah shrugs when asked about the pricetag. "The course is totally 'paisa vasool' (value for money)," she says.
Meenakshi Shedde is a critic and adviser on Indian cinema to the Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Toronto festivals.
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