Censorships Against Film Schools'; Censorship Against Creative Freedom
21 February 2026 | FTII: Film and Television Institute of India
Students' Association
Film and Television Institute of India Law College Road, Pune - 411004
Censorship against Film Schools, Censorship against Creative Freedom
FTISA Statement against Withdrawal of Screening Permission for SRFTI Project The Film and Television Institute of India Students' Association (FTIISA) strongly condemns the decision of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting to deny screening exemption to Da' Lit Kids, a student animated short film produced at the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI), for its screening at the Animela Animation Festival in Mumbai.
Da’ Lit Kids is an academic project created within the framework of a publicly funded film school. Film schools, like other art institutes, exist to present a truthful picture of society and its times while cultivating experimentation, engaging with marginalized and alternative narratives, and developing artistic practices that foster serious social engagement. To deprive these institutions of their critical agency reduces them to mere technician-training centres.
These institutes, which have been a significant part of the nation-building project since the early years of the Republic, are meant to nurture thinking artists. When the state blocks the circulation of young artists and their creative work, it interferes directly in the making of these artists, obstructing the intellectual and artistic life of the republic.
The fact that Da’ Lit Kids engage with caste discrimination makes this denial particularly telling. Caste remains an enduring structure shaping everyday life in India. When young filmmakers confront this reality through animation, a medium of imagination and reflection, they fulfill one of the essential functions of art: to reveal what society often prefers to ignore.
Preventing such a film from being screened does not erase the social conditions it addresses.
It only signals the discomfort of those in power with its articulation.
Furthermore, this animated short film has previously been screened at respected festivals such as the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala and the Dharamshala International Film Festival. To obstruct its screening now raises serious questions about the intent and consistency of the bureaucratic machinery that governs festival permissions. The issue is larger than a single film or a single festival. Repeated instances of bureaucratic obstruction, whether through denial of exemptions, delays in permissions, or indirect pressure, create a chilling atmosphere for independent and alternative film culture in India. Over time, such practices narrow the creative horizon and normalize self-censorship within creative and critical spaces. We have witnessed similar patters of withdrawn permissions before at multiple film festivals. This concerns the autonomy of film culture and the freedom to engage with cinema without administrative fear.
If student films must seek clearance beyond academic evaluation, and that clearance can be denied without transparent reasoning, then institutional autonomy becomes merely symbolic.
The damage extends beyond one film; it affects the confidence of an entire generation of filmmakers who begin to internalize invisible limits of expression.
It is particularly telling that public funding does not grant the state ideological ownership over artistic output. Film schools are not propaganda units. They are cultural institutions meant to reflect the plurality and conflicts of society. Their value lies precisely in their capacity to produce work that may be unsettling or politically inconvenient.
FTIISA stands in solidarity with the makers of the film, students, and faculty of SRETI. We demand that the denial of screening exemption to Da' Lit Kids be reconsidered immediately.
Censorship directed at film schools is censorship directed at the future of cinema in India.
Creative freedom cannot survive under administrative fear. Film schools cannot function under silent control.
In Solidanty,
FTIISA
Amritanshu Singh Yadav
President
FTIISA
Ajmal Shah KU
General Secretary
FTIISA
Screenshots of forwarded statement below:
