“Nitika’s father claimed she committed suicide because we did not issue her the certificate for the course she was doing. But we can issue certificates to only those who complete the courses. Nitika did not complete her cinematography course that should have got over in April 2008,” Chandrashekhar Joshi, film research officer at FTII, told The Indian Express.

“Students from four courses in the institute need to come together and work on a common project at the end of their curriculum. None of the students was keen on working with Nitika and that was one reason that her film-making project remained incomplete,” Joshi said. Nitika had some issues with the faculty in October 2007 as well, he added.

“In order to get her film making project completed, we had asked her to assist a well-known director who has been a student at the institute,” Joshi added.

The director, who did not want his identity to be revealed, said, “She was my assistant for a film in March last year. Everyone on the sets, while interacting with Nitika, noticed that she had a psychological problem. But four days ago when I spoke to her on the phone, she sounded okay,” he said.