Veteran filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan stepped down as chairman of KR Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts (KRNNIVSA) on Tuesday.

Since December 2022, the students of have been on an indefinite protest demanding the resignation of the institute's director Shankar Mohan who faced allegations of caste discrimination. The students alleged that Shankar, a former actor and filmmaker, has exhibited caste-based discrimination on the campus on multiple occasions and asked conservancy workers to clean the toilets of the director's private residence. The allegation also includes Shankar breaching students' reservation rules. Meanwhile, Gopalakrishnan supported the director and refuted the allegations. He was criticised for the same. Following that, on January 21, Shankar resigned as the director.

Addressing the press on Tuesday, after submitting the resignation letter to Kerala CM Pinnarayi Vijayan, Gopalakrishnan reiterated that the allegations against Shankar were baseless. He also stated that there were no single Dalit sweepers in the institute, and the probing committee had not yet listened to him or Shankar. Further, Gopalakrishnan also stood with Mohan over the reservation controversy at the institute. He claimed that they have not changed the reservation norms. Earlier, several Malayalam filmmakers and the Women in Cinema Collective extended support to students of KRNNIVSA.