THE MAN WHO SHAPED INDIAN CINEMA

If the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) became the cradle of Indian cinema’s finest storytellers, much of that credit, said acclaimed filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, goes to “my venerated principal, my mentor, my father figure” — Jagat Murari. Speaking as Chief Guest at the launch of The Maker of Filmmakers, Adoor called the book “a daughter’s loving tribute to her great father… told like a novel, so beautifully written.”

The evening at FTII was more than a literary launch — it was a homecoming. The hall resonated with memories, laughter, and emotion as students, faculty and renowned alumni gathered to celebrate the man who helped define their creative journeys.

FTII Vice-Chancellor Dhiraj Singh hailed the book’s meticulous research, saying, “Such well-researched books can often turn dull, but this one reads like a thriller. The scholarship here is world-class.”

Author Radha Chadha, Murari’s daughter, shared how her father’s story was inseparable from the institute’s own. “I realised I couldn’t tell his story without telling FTII’s. Like twin strands of DNA, they twisted around each other. He made the Institute — the Institute made him.”

Through his journals and archival materials, Radha unearthed her father’s vision of limitless creativity. “As he once wrote, ‘The Film Institute is an effort to dream up the future of Indian cinema — and make it a practical reality.’”

During the discussion that followed, Adoor reflected on Murari’s insistence on artistic integrity: “It’s easy to make a film. It’s difficult to make a good one.” The remark captured Murari’s lasting influence — his belief that cinema was both art and discipline.

The audience included a host of distinguished FTII alumni from the 1960s and 1970s — Paintal, Narinder Singh, Arunaraje Patil, R.M. Rao, Praba Mahajan, and several others — each recalling the rigour and warmth that defined Murari’s mentorship. Ambassador Talmiz Ahmed, whose father was Murari’s close friend, summed up the sentiment of the night: “Every part of this Institute was shaped by Jagat Murari. This book captures sixty years of that evolution — sixty years in the making.”

In chronicling her father’s life, Radha Chadha does more than preserve a personal legacy — she restores a vital chapter of India’s cinematic history.

The Book and Its Author

The Maker of Filmmakers traces how Jagat Murari, who once apprenticed under Orson Welles during the filming of Macbeth in 1947, returned to a newly independent India to establish FTII and nurture an entire generation of filmmakers. His students — Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Subhash Ghai, Mani Kaul, among many others — went on to redefine Indian cinema, spearheading movements from the New Wave to regional storytelling.

Written with warmth, precision and insight, the book offers both biography and history — a story of ambition, artistry and vision, brought to life with rare photographs and archival treasures.

Author Radha Chadha is a leading expert on marketing and consumer insight in Asia, and the bestselling author of The Cult of the Luxury Brand. An alumna of IIM Ahmedabad and St Stephen’s College, Delhi, she spent her childhood on the FTII campus — where her father built not just an institution, but a creative movement that continues to inspire.