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Twenty years after she packed her bags and left Pune for Mumbai on a rainy day in 2006, Rasika Dugal recently returned to the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), where familiar corridors, classrooms and even the smallest details brought back memories she didn't know she still carried. “I felt like a barrage of memories came rushing in. Things that I didn't know I remembered,” says Rasika, recalling “the squeaky seats in my first-year classroom, the smell of the hostel mess” and the thrill of attending a party thrown by a senior who needed to shoot a party scene for his diploma film.


“Watching a handheld camera float through that party was so exciting. The singing under the Wisdom Tree, the quiet of the movie theatre where we sincerely gave our complete attention to each frame... I could go on!” she shares. The visit also brought back memories of the collaborative spirit that defined her student years. Walking into the sound studio and watching a group of students work together on a project reminded her of a time when getting the film made mattered more than clearly defined roles.


“It was never about, ‘This is my job and that is yours.’ I have held a thermocol in the middle of the night on a friend's shoot to reflect the light,” she says, adding, “We learnt all aspects of filmmaking by helping each other out. And through that, we learnt that filmmaking is a highly collaborative process . You shine if your colleagues shine.” For Rasika, a film school should remain a space where experimentation and diverse voices can thrive, away from the pressures of the outside world. “A film school should offer that safe space to speak your mind, to experiment and to learn the craft so well that you can push its boundaries,” she says.


And what would she tell the Rasika who left FTII for Mumbai two decades ago? “That things do work out, even if it may not seem like that every day. And that there is room for all kinds. If you focus on the work, doors do open. Maybe not all, but some do.”