Towards the end of the 1950s, to promote quality cinema, the Indian government began establishing various organizations, including the **Film Institute of India** in 1960 (renamed **Film and Television Institute of India [FTII]** in 1974), headquartered in Pune (Maharashtra). Within a few years, FTII achieved the government’s vision, training many who would become the pride and glory of Indian cinema, especially the “New Cinema,” from the mid-1960s onward. In 1995, still under the government’s aegis, the **Satyajit Ray Film & Television Institute (SRFTI)** was founded in Calcutta (Kolkata). While this institute has produced several graduates who joined the “Industry” (the film industry, by definition), it has yet to match FTII's accomplishments. However, both institutes appear to be stagnating for various reasons: managerial, economic, and political. In 2001, meanwhile, a new reality emerged in Mumbai's Film City—home to numerous studios and film sets: **Whistling Woods International**, a film school founded and financed by Subhash Ghai. But who is Subhash Ghai?
Born in Nagpur in 1945 and raised in Delhi, S. Ghai enrolled at FTII in 1963 after studying economics. In Pune, he met Rehana Farooqi, who later became his wife under the name Mukta. After earning his diploma, he moved to Bombay with his wife, where he began working as an actor. He also immediately started writing stories and screenplays in collaboration with Mukta. His directorial debut came in 1975 with *Kalicharan* and his production debut in 1980 with *Karz* (The Debt, now a cult classic). In 1982, he founded his production company, Mukta Arts, which produced national and international hits such as *Khalnayak* (The Villain, 1993), *Pardes* (Foreign Land, 1997), and *Taal* (Rhythm, 1999). In 2000, Mukta Arts expanded into a corporate company handling distribution and multimedia. However, despite becoming one of the most prominent figures in cinema and collecting numerous awards and honors, Subhash Ghai wanted more. He had a dream: to establish an international film school. Thus, in 2001, he laid the foundation stone of **Whistling Woods International (WWI)**, which became operational in 2006.
From the start, S. Ghai was supported by his daughter Meghna, a graduate in Business Management from Kings College London, who trained rigorously alongside her father at Mukta Arts. Meghna turned her father’s dream into reality. Thanks to her strong professional background, intelligence, and vision, the institution flourished. So much so that the prestigious American magazine *Hollywood Reporter* included it among the world’s top ten film schools in 2010. As President of WWI and supported by her husband Rahul Puri—himself a key figure at Mukta Arts and currently WWI's Director of Academics—Meghna developed the institute's infrastructure, organization, and curriculum. She created several ‘schools’ covering all aspects of cinema, equipping them with state-of-the-art technology to provide international-level training. The student body has grown from 82 in its early days to about 1,300, with over 2,900 graduates to date. WWI also offers numerous scholarships to talented but underprivileged students and is affiliated with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences and the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development. For her contributions to media and film education, Meghna Ghai Puri received the Honorary Fellowship from Bradford College (UK) in 2013, the *Economic Times* Best Education Brands of India award in 2019, and the *Times Leading Icon* award in 2021 for excellence in media and creative arts education.
A question remains: Subhash Ghai was one of FTII’s first graduates and among those who became legendary figures in Indian cinema. What motivated him to create a new film school, which has also achieved fame like its founder and, whether intentionally or not, competes with FTII? Perhaps because FTII aimed to create cinema for the elite, while WWI aspires to be a school of the Industry for the Industry.
Here we present three WWI graduation short films that have participated in numerous national and international festivals and won several awards: *Kathakaar* (The Storyteller, 2016), *500 Rupees* (2017), and *The Nightingale* (2019), whose protagonists include a man who loses his job, a young prostitute, and two lovers in a war-torn region. The directors are, respectively, **Abhimanyu Kanodia**, who graduated in Directing in 2015 and has since directed eight other films and a web series for Dice Media; **Shashwat Gandhi**, who graduated in 2017, co-founded Boathouse Media (a video production company for commercials and corporate films), and has a feature film in the works; and **Shiva Katyal**, who graduated in Directing but is also interested in editing, cinematography, sound, and screenwriting, and has worked as an assistant director on feature films, shorts, and web series.
Kathakaar (The Storyteller, 2016, 10.37 min)
Director: Abhimanyu Kanodia
Camera: Mitesh Parvatneni
Editing: Pavi Trehan
Music: Madhur Padwal
Production: Shraddha Singh, Naveed Manakkodan
An elderly projectionist is laid off to make way for younger staff and new technologies. Depressed, he returns to his village, where he unexpectedly discovers a new life.
500 Rupees (2017, 15.48 min)
Director: Shashwat Gandhi
Camera: Bhavya Jogani
Editing: Ayush Sapra
Music: Siddharth Kaushik
Production: Yogehrestha, Karpaten
Inspired by *Das Rupye* (Ten Rupees), a novella by renowned writer S.H. Manto, the film tells the story of a young prostitute "rented" by three clients, leading to an unexpected outcome.
The Nightingale (2019, 17.09 min)
Director: Shiva Katyal
Camera: Sanjana Oswald
Editing: Punit Bhatia
Music: Abhishek Bonthu
Production: Vikrant Varma
Set in war-torn Kashmir, the film tells a love story between a Hindu soldier and a Muslim girl but is above all a reflection on war.
