Naseeruddin Shah Accuses BJP of Vendetta Against Film Students

Naseeruddin Shah has stepped into the standoff at Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute with a blunt Instagram video: he says the BJP is now settling scores with students who ask hard questions.

In the video on Saturday, the 76-year-old called the BJP a “bloody jhooti party” and said that after a “manipulative victory” in this year’s West Bengal Assembly elections, it is “all out for revenge on anyone who does not subscribe to their beliefs and their policies.”

His target is not a rival politician but a film school. Students at SRFTI have been holding an indefinite sit-in outside Vice-Chancellor Santosh Ajmera’s office since October 12, asking for his resignation over campus violence.

What Shah says the students are facing

Shah claimed that because the students demanded accountability from the administration, they were served show-cause notices, put under surveillance, threatened and asked to vacate their hostels.

“The latest victims of this vendetta are the students, the aspiring filmmakers of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute,” Shah said in the video.

He added that the BJP was not “content with backing and encouraging shameless propaganda in its favour” and was now trying to “brainwash or frighten” India’s future filmmakers. “I can promise you that is not going to happen,” he said. He closed with a direct appeal: “I urge all right-minded citizens to support the demands of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute students.”

How the campus crisis began

The immediate flashpoint was a Sunday clash between students and members of the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, a right-wing consumer group that had rented the institute’s main auditorium for a programme. Each side blames the other for starting the violence.

On October 16, SRFTI suspended all regular academic operations across its film, electronic and digital media faculties until November 13 and ordered students to leave the premises within 24 hours. The institute was on its Puja vacation until October 21, but the protesters stayed put, flagging safety lapses and demanding action against those responsible.

A quick timeline

• October 12: Students begin an indefinite sit-in outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office.
• October 16: SRFTI suspends academic operations until November 13 and tells students to vacate in 24 hours.
• October 21 onwards: Puja vacation ends; protesters continue their sit-in.

Why filmi fans should watch this

For Hindi film audiences, this is not an abstract campus story. Film and television institutes feed the next generation of directors, technicians and storytellers, so a disciplinary shutdown is also an early warning about whose voices reach screens later.

Shah’s intervention also converts a local protest into a national, star-backed story, giving the students’ demand for accountability a much louder amplifier. The actor was last seen in Imtiaz Ali’s Main Vaapas Aaunga (2026) and played JRD Tata in MX Player’s Made in India: A Titan Story (2026).

Source: India Today