Vijay Varma took to his Instagram stories on Wednesday to write a sarcastic response to Gajendra Chauhan for his statement claiming to be proud of Payal Kapadia for winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival 2024. In 2015, Payal was at the receiving end of a disciplinary action by her alma mater, Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), for protesting against the appointment of Gajendra as the institute’s president.

Vijay is also an alumnus of FTII and he took a dig at Gajendra who in a statement to PTI had said, “Congratulations to her (Payal) and I feel proud that I was the chairman at the time when she was doing the course there.” Soon, the statement was called out by many on social media.

Vijay posted the quote on his story and wrote, “Sir ye chup rehne ka time tha (Sir, this was a time to stay quiet)”. He also posted a sticker of popular meme template saying, “Karwali beizzati (Happy to be insulted?)”.

As per reports, Pune Police had filed a chargesheet against Payal and 34 other students for holding then-FTII director Prashant Pathrabe “captive”. She, along with other students, was denied scholarships and later arrested.

In 2017, however, then FTII director Bhupendra Kainthola reversed the earlier stance and funded Payal’s travel to Cannes for her documentary short film, A Night of Knowing Nothing for which she won the ‘le prix du documentaire’ for Best Documentary.