Last Thursday, over 200 students of Whistling Woods International were invited by Anil Kapoor Productions to Movietime multiplex, Goregaon to view and study ‘Gandhi, My Father’. This was followed by a two-hour master-class by producer Anil Kapoor and director Feroz Abbas Khan on the various aspects of its writing, direction and production.

When students congratulated Anil Kapoor for producing such realistic cinema in spite of him being an actor who has largely been a part of a more mainstream, larger-than-life cinema, Anil replied “When I first heard the story, it held me like no other film before and I was excited that it went beyond the typical commercial film framework. This is a film which portrays realism of a level than any other film I have seen or been a part of. Hence I was happy to produce it and will continue to make such cinema”

Feroz Abbas Khan, renowned theatre director re-iterated that he wanted to make a film based on true facts how Mahatma Gandhi continued to be the ‘father of the nation’ while giving up his own demanding son Harilal. The movie sends a message that, when in crisis, the nation is more important than the family.

Feroz Khan on his first visit to Whistling Woods greatly appreciated the quality of the institution at all levels. He said “Students here will learn in two years what they would take seven or eight years to learn in the media industry. Further, the new-age programs of Animation and Business of Film & TV will aid in taking Indian media to an internationally competent level. However, we still need many more students to understand, learn & master the craft of screenwriting if India is to truly go global”