‘Cinema a way of life in India,should be given heritage status’

After I left FTII,I had forgotten all about this until around four years ago. I saw an interview of Martin Scorsese and he said that across the world,people were preserving their heritage by restoring great films in a laboratory called L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna,Italy. They host a festival there in June-July,called Il Cinema Ritrovato,in which restored films are screened. After watching these films at the festival,it made me wonder about our own cinematic heritage.

Sankhayan Ghosh: Tell us about the making of Celluloid Man.?

Celluloid Man took three years. Nair saheb had said he would do the film only if it wasn’t about him. It was a long battle we fought with the NFAI,for eight-nine months,to get permission to shoot there. While making Celluloid Man,I read about Scorsese wanting to restore Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948). He tried convincing the Indian government for two years that Pandit Ravi Shankar had asked him to restore Kalpana,which was made by his brother. I thought this film would pave the way for preservation and restoration in India. The battle to get Kalpana from NFAI was a turning point. I collaborated with Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation recently to restore Sri Lankan filmmaker Lester James Peries’s film,Nidhanaya,which is a first for Sri Lanka. I was also a patron for the restoration of Hitchcock’s silent film,Lodger,that was done by British Film Institute.

Alaka Sahani: While restoring movies,what is the process

followed?

Like a work of art,you have to correct it frame by frame. A team of researchers is set up to study the background of the film,whether people who were part of the film are alive,what were the colours like,what were the impression people had of the film and so on. When Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard was being restored,Scorsese would say the colour of the roses in the scene were not correct because a particular kind of rose was brought in from Milan. So,they had to keep redoing the frames until they got the colour right. You need an artist,a film historian looking into the restoration process.

Meenakshi Iyer: You mentioned that there aren’t enough artistes to oversee the preservation work in this project. How do you aim to bridge that gap?

SSD: When we decided to set up our own foundation,we did think whether others would join us or not. Through Celluloid Man,talks and meeting film families,we have been telling them how important it is to preserve (films). It is time now for individuals to do it and contribute themselves.

Irawati Harshe: This happens also because there is a lack of awareness. We are trying to look at ways and means through our foundation to take it forward through education. So,though there are labs and there are technical people,we need people who are well versed with the art of restoration as opposed to just the technical process of restoration. So yes,this kind of work force needs to be built up in India.

Smita Nair: How do you decide which movie needs to be restored?

SSD: The condition of the material that is available dictates the priority of preservation and restoration and some classic Indian films do not even have an original camera negative surviving. Some films are on the verge of extinction. As I am funding the foundation from my own pocket as of now,we can’t do too much yet. But we have chosen around 10 films that we thought need immediate attention. We are trying to raise funds to restore the films. The big step was to convince the families of the filmmakers. We had to convince them that their original material would not be touched and they would get a fresh restored print of the film.

P Vaidyanathan Iyer: Do copyright issues create a problem in the film restoration process?

SSD: In India,copyright is a complex issue. For instance,as in the case of Kalpana,there was initially a dispute. People found it hard to believe that Scorsese’s foundation put money into it and that there was no money earned. It was his love for cinema.

Mayura Janwalkar: On an average,how long does it take to restore a film?

Kalpana was restored in six months. It depends on the condition of the source material. Any film needs 4-6 months at least because it not just about pictures,but sound too. There are various things that have to be taken into account,such as image resolution. One has to carry out several tests before you go ahead with the final restoration.

Dipti Nagpaul D’Souza: Are you not seeking help from the film fraternity?

SSD: We have approached some people. Some don’t have the time,some haven’t given it a thought. Actually,it comes from the fact that filmmaking in India over the years has only been seen as a business and never as an art form.

Kevin Lobo: Have you got any positive feedback from any

filmmakers?

Irawati Harshe: They are impressed by the passion but we’ll see. I am sure there’s something there. Every country must have started like this at some point.

Kevin Lobo: What are the other sources of funding?

SSD: The main sources we are looking at are people from the fraternity and several big companies that we hope will come forward realising the value of our cinematic heritage. Cinema has had a powerful influence on India’s culture and we are not just talking about feature films. Films formulate our thinking,way of life,the way we look at each other,the way we form relationships. It has to be given heritage

status.

Kevin Lobo: Is there a plan in place for building an ecosystem needed for restoration?

SSD: The government should have a national plan to save Indian films. It is important that public-private partnerships are formed for this with the film industry playing an active part. And of course greater public access is essential. We must accept that it is only through the efforts of the film community and the support of the public can significant progress be made to save films.

IH: We are hoping that as we meet more people from the industry and studios,maybe we will be able to spread awareness. Also,we would like to propose to the government to introduce courses on restoration at the university level. Such courses are not offered in India.

Dipti Nagpaul D’Souza: Why is digital not the best format to preserve movies?

SSD: Film was done on a chemical and there’s a certain quality of a chemical,which gives a certain kind of resolution. Film gives you separation of colours,digital technology doesn’t. Film has lasted for 100 years,we know that for sure. We do not know that about digital because it is always changing.

Sankhayan Ghosh: Why aren’t organisations such as National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Films Division doing something about it?

SSD: NFDC has done restoration of their films. Films Division hasn’t got the funds yet to do restoration on their own.

Srinath Rao: What role can television play in film restoration?

IH: They could screen the restored film. It could be part of a revenue model,they could opt for pay-per-view. Or if,they have a ‘classics’ television channel,the films could be shown on that channel.

Alaka Sahani: The education model that you were talking about… how do you want to go about it?

IH: The idea is to educate students,and by students I don’t mean just children but students of cinema and people at large about the language of moving images and our cinematic heritage.

SSD: We want to reach out to schools. We are in the process of formulating educational modules for India.

(Transcribed by Amruta Lakhe,Meenakshi Iyer,Sankhayan Ghosh & Kevin Lobo)