Mr. Ashwani Chauhan is the Head of the Acting Department at PFTI. He has been working as a HOD at KNP College for the last two years. He has overall 7 years of experience including 5 years of teaching experience. He has also worked in the casting team in Randeep Hooda’s movie and also worked with Sanjay Maheshwari. 

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Padarpan Films and Theatre Institute

Being a faculty of your Department, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

Ans. As a faculty, my first and foremost responsibility is to provide my students with the best possible knowledge, take care of their rehearsals, and prepare them for the competitive world of acting. I believe that it is my responsibility to ensure that my students are doing well in their careers, and for that, I have to take care of all the factors affecting their growth and work on them to assure a successful career for my students.

How do you try to bring in a practical approach towards subjects and make it industry oriented?

Ans. We conduct various activities to provide students with the practical experience necessary for their growth, such as facial expression activities, mind exercises, posture training, vocal training, etc. We also have various activities for their personality development. We emphasize 80% practical learning and 20% theoretical learning.

What are the best practices offered by the department to the students which help them gain the necessary skills?

Ans. We offer personality development classes, and script classes where we teach participants about scripts. Understanding scripts is crucial for future success, as it greatly enhances their chances of securing good projects. Additionally, we provide classes on posture sense development, enabling individuals to cultivate the necessary skills for their personal and professional growth.

How do you help your student cope with the competition being so high in the outside world?

Ans. We provide students with placements during the course itself, which helps them create their profile in the industry and gain valuable experience. Many renowned TV shows and films feature our students, which helps new students establish good connections and referrals in the industry. We conduct 10 hours of classes to ensure they acquire sufficient knowledge to thrive in the competitive world.

What are the challenges you faced/ are facing to uplift the quality of education in your department?

Ans. Recently, the biggest challenge faced in our department, even in the acting industry, is the shift from movie theatres to online or OTT platforms. This shift has reduced the opportunities for students and raised the competitive bar. Due to the emergence of OTT platforms, various aspects of the industry have changed, and all of those changes have, somewhere down the line, affected the quality of training and learning in our department, posing a challenge for us.

What do you see as the department’s/ college’s greatest strengths and how can it be enhanced?

Ans. The strength of our department lies in the quality of learning and opportunities we provide. We have three teachers for the acting department: one who looks after basic training, one who focuses on theatre training, and another who oversees overall training. We provide a full guarantee of placements and offer good projects to the students to establish a solid foundation for their careers.

What valuable advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead?

Ans. The advice I would like to give to students pursuing a career in acting is to attain proper knowledge before moving ahead. Sometimes, students go for auditions without proper learning and understanding, and they become demotivated after rejection. However, they fail to realize that such situations occur due to a lack of knowledge. Hence, I recommend all students pursuing a career in acting acquire sufficient knowledge before moving forward and always be patient.

What are the interventions and approaches you bring in apart from curriculum to train/teach the students?

Ans. We provide students with the opportunity to participate in new events and gain up-to-date knowledge through seminars and projects that introduce fresh approaches in our department.