Hindi film celebrities including Shekhar Kapur, Resul Pookutty, Anand Gandhi, Hansal Mehta, Nikhil Advani and Anubhav Sinha on Wednesday condemned the arrest of protesting FTII students, and said the government should "respond with solutions not muscle".

They said the arrests in Pune in a post-midnight swoop following a complaint by the film institute's director was a shame, "absolutely condemnable" and sad.