Can I access node ID of the parent node of a field collection field in field-collection-item--FIELD_NAME.tpl.php I am just hoping to get the node ID of the parent node in a field-collection-item--name.tpl.php template file.

So if my parent node name is mypage in which I have child fields of field-collection-item--name.tpl.php, I just want to access the Node ID of the parent page (mypage) in field-collection-item--name.tpl.php.

Is it possible?

Apparently somewhat yes. If I do this, I get details on the parent node. The only problem is that that data is protected. The output of this line is pasted below. All I want is [vid] value (i.e. 120)

  $var = $content["field_image_title"]["#object"];
  print_r ($var);


Output of above line

FieldCollectionItemEntity Object
(
    [fieldInfo:protected] =&gt; 
    [hostEntity:protected] =&gt; stdClass Object
        (
            [vid] =&gt; 120
            [uid] =&gt; 1
            [title] =&gt; My Parent Page Name
            [log] =&gt; 
            [status] =&gt; 1
            [comment] =&gt; 1
            [promote] =&gt; 0
            [sticky] =&gt; 0
            [vuuid] =&gt; f3c2f63d-5d86-4d94-98f3-8a1ba76ce1f9
            [nid] =&gt; 120
            [type] =&gt; subpage
            [language] =&gt; und
            [created] =&gt; 1408623334
            [changed] =&gt; 1408640101
            [tnid] =&gt; 0
            [translate] =&gt; 0
            [uuid] =&gt; 486dead0-4f72-45a3-988c-64512e6b91de
            [revision_timestamp] =&gt; 1408640101
            [revision_uid] =&gt; 1


Any help on how I can get this vid value in this protected array?

Thanks.
Load the field collection using entity_load by passing the entity id. It gives you object where you can get the Host entity of the loaded entity. example profile2 will have user entity as host entity, or commerce line item will have commerce order as host entity. 

$entity = entity_load('field_collection_item', $your_file_collection_id);
$host_entity = $entity-&gt;hostEntity();
echo $host_entity-&gt;nid;