PUNE: Television producer and Vice Chairman of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Governing Council Brijendra Pal (BP) Singh, has been appointed as its new chairperson.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, on Thursday night, announced Singh's name. He was also the chairperson of FTII’s Academic Council. FTII’s former chairman Anupam Kher recently resigned from the post after a short tenure of hardly a year, owing to his shooting schedule out of the country.

The tenure of Singh will be for the remaining period of a block of three years starting from March 4, 2017 (after the end of Gajendra Chauhan’s tenure) as per provisions of FTII rules.

“The appointment has come as a pleasant surprise to me. We were actually planning for a meeting of the Academic Council on December 18, where we would be discussing the new credit-based syllabus and other academic issues. We have also already invited students to be a part of this meeting, and give their suggestions,” Singh said.

Reacting on the appointment, Bhupendra Kainthola, Director, FTII said, “FTII welcomes the appointment of BP Singh as the new chairman. As former chairperson of FTII Academic Council (2014-2017) and current Vice Chairman of FTII Governing Council, Singh is fully conversant with all issues of the institute. It is his vision that launched FTII's countrywide film education outreach initiative SKIFT (Skilling India in Film and Television) in May 2017, which saw nearly 120 short courses conducted in over 24 cities and towns across India touching nearly 5,000 learners so far.”

Sing also happens to be FTII alumnus (1970-73) who specialised in film cinematography, also earned his reputation as a producer-director of popular TV serial 'CID' which recently completed a record 21 years unbroken run on SONY TV. In 2004, Singh made it to the Limca Book of Records for taking a single continuous shot of 111 minutes to mark the completion of six years of CID.