My Stories: The IAAC Blog Series

How exactly does one shape an actor like Shabana Azmi or Jaya Bachchan? Or hone the raw talent of a director like Adoor Gopalakrishnan? Or train the sensibilites of a cinematographer like K.K. Mahajan? I was fascinated – indeed obsessed – with these questions, even more so as my father, Jagat Murari, was the man who ‘made’ scores upon scores of outstanding filmmakers at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Did he have a secret formula, I wondered?

How exactly does one shape an actor like Shabana Azmi or Jaya Bachchan? Or hone the raw talent of a director like Adoor Gopalakrishnan? Or train the sensibilites of a cinematographer like K.K. Mahajan? I was fascinated – indeed obsessed – with these questions, even more so as my father, Jagat Murari, was the man who ‘made’ scores upon scores of outstanding filmmakers at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). Did he have a secret formula, I wondered?