Shekhar Kapur appointed President of FTII Society and Chairman of its governing council

Acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur has been appointed President of the Pune-based Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) Society and Chairman of the institute's governing council.

Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, tweeted to confirm the news on Tuesday.

"Mr Kapur, who has vast experience, will add more value to the Institute. I am sure everybody will welcome his appointment," he added.

The director has made his mark in Hollywood as well as Bollywood. He started out as a filmmaker with Masoom in 1983. Starring Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi and Jugal Hansraj, the film was a critical and commercial success. Shekhar Kapur would score a blockbuster at the box office with his 1987 release Mr. India, starring Sridevi, Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri.

The international acclaim he won with his hard-hitting biopic of Phoolan Devi, Bandit Queen in 1994, helped him take his craft to the West. He made his Hollywood directorial debut with the Oscar-nominated Elizabeth (1998), and went on to make The Four Feathers (2002), and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), besides directing a segment of the 2008 anthology, New York, I Love You.

Apart from direction, Shekhar Kapur had a stint as a Bollywood actor with films like Toote Khilone (1978), Falak (1988), Gawahi (1989), and the TV series Udaan (1989-1991), among other works.