Students on strike at the Bypass film institute. A Telegraph file picture

The first step towards resolving the three-week-old stand-off between the authorities and students has been taken at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI).

After the botched meeting on Monday, academic council members turned up in full force on Tuesday for a marathon session with the students, where a host of academic issues was thrashed out.

The meeting was attended by SRFTI chairman Basu Chatterjee, institute director Abhay Srivastava, cinematographer Soumendu Roy, film-maker Nirad Mahapatra, two SRFTI ex-students, dean Adinath Das and the heads of all departments. Around 60 students were present at the meeting.

The talk took off at the institute?s preview theatre at 10.30 am, stretching well into the evening. The thrust of the discussion was on ?academic malfunctioning?, with the students broaching issues like lack of scheduling and syllabus, library mismanagement, equipment upkeep and irregularities in the student exchange programmes.

?We have placed certain demands, one of which is the appointment of a film official. He will be accountable for the student exchange programmes and for sending our diploma films to festivals. We also need a proper production manager who will accompany us on shoots and be involved from the pre-production stage,? said Raka Dutta, a student of direction.

?We want a frozen guideline on the shoot schedule and the syllabus before the start of every semester, so that they are not altered later,? added Dhruba Ghosh, a student of the outgoing direction batch.

The group has also demanded more equipment in the four departments of direction, editing, sound and camera, and also proper maintenance.

Director Srivastava told Metro: ?The meeting was quite satisfactory. The students have put forward so many things through the daylong meeting. We will continue to discuss some of these points when the governing council meets.?

The list of suggestions will now have to be ratified by the governing council meeting, slated for Wednesday at 9.30 am. The next academic meeting will be held a month later.