IIT Kharagpur to screen 3 Idiots' on campus

Posted by blog master Saturday, January 16, 2010

KOLKATA: It would be a homecoming for super-hit film 3 Idiots, with the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, arranging five shows at its

The film depicts life in an elite engineering institute and though there is no explicit reference to IITs, Five Point Someone, the novel written by Chetan Bhagat on which the film is based, talks about life on an IIT campus.

As soon as the institute re-opened after the winter vacation on December 30, a demand for screening the film was placed at the Gymkhana, IITs students' body. So, the Technology Film Society, as the film club of the institute is called, got in touch with the distributor of the film in Kolkata, Kapurchand, who agreed to pull off the film from a city hall for a week so that the institute could hold its shows. "We will have to shell out quite a bit, but it would be worth the effort," said Pulak Banerjee, manager of film club.

Almost all of the 9000-strong student body of the institute, along with the 550-strong faculty and 1200 strong staff wish to see 3 Idiots. The film club is having a trying time as the auditorium has only 900 seats.

Ironically, there's hardly a student who has not watched the film. But students are more than enthusiastic for a repeat viewing with their IIT mates. "I have seen the film but nothing compares like seeing it on campus with my friends. It is like seeing campus life getting enacted by popular actors," said Shubham Matah, student vice-president of the institute.

Abhiradhika Agarwal, an architecture student cancelled her plans to spend the weekend in Kolkata to see the film on campus.

Even teachers sound excited. "I wanted to see the film as newspapers are full of praise for 3 Idiots. However, going to Kolkata to watch the film in a multiplex is a tall order. Now that the film would be screened in the campus, I would not miss the chance," said

V K Tewari, faculty member of the institute. Manish Bhattacharya, a teacher of chemistry and the president of the Gymkhana, confesses that while he is not exactly a film enthusiast, he is happy with the screening "because the film is based on a story on the IITs."
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source-timesofindia.indiatimes.com