Workshop for Restoration & Preservation of Bengali Classics

Kolkata, Nov 15 (PTI) The Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the International Federation of Film Archives Thursday started a workshop for restoration and preservation of Bengali classics at the 24th Kolkata International Film Festival.

The workshop which was inaugurated Thursday would be held till November 22.

Foundation Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur told a press meet here Thursday, that the organisation was in the process of identifying the 100 most important Bengali films which needed to be preserved and restored.

Several films of Asit Sen, Ajay Kar, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha - to name a few - needed immediate attention, Dungarpur said.

"I have been told that Sen's 'Bhuban Some' had got selected to the Cannes Film festival but could not be screened as there was no print fit for screening in that festival. We need to preserve such an important part of our history, we have put together a list of 100 films.... We now expect the public to come forward to suggest what can be the best hundred," he said to another question.

Dungapur said among the 100 shortlisted films, 'Kalpana', a 1948 film by Uday Shankar, has been restored and screened at the 24th KIFF and that "is the beginning."

"We have just started around and that is the beginning," he said adding it took two years and incurred around Rs 2 crore to restore the classic 'Kalpana' which was in a bad shape.

Asked about the cost of the restoration of Apu trilogy by Satyajit Ray, he said that was much cheaper and done by The Criterion and Academy of Motion Pictures.

"So they can say about that cost better," he said about the four restored works which had already been screened at the 24th KIFF.

Ace film maker Goutam Ghosh, who was involved with the initiative of workshop at KIFF, said "this is the most significant event in KIFF, a workshop on digital film making. Ghosh said while shooting and editing on digital format was a recent trend in past 8-10 years, great movies had been shot on celluloid for more than 100 years.

Expressing concern over the present situation in celluloid film industry, Ghosh said, "Today in India all labs are closed. Negatives are rotting. No air conditioning. You need such initiative of a workshop which is supported by West Bengal government and all international partners," he said adding while the west cared for preservation, we don't care about our culture.

24th KIFF Chairman and Bengali film superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee said this was a wonderful initiative and gave an opportunity which the Bengali film industry should take up and expressed happiness that work has already started.

"We saw the result, the day the restored Pather Panchali was screened (at KIFF)," he said.

Group CEO Viacom 18, Sudhansu Vats, which is supporting the initiative of workshop, said, "With the past three editions of the workshop in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai, we are proud to have created a pool of about 200 individuals who are equipped to preserve films across India."

The workshop was later inaugurated at Rabindra Sadan in the presence of thespian Soumitra Chatterjee, Goutam Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta, FIAF coordinator David Walsh and West Bengal ministers Arup Biswas and Indranil Sen.

Dasgupta regretted at the function that five of his films shown in the masters section of Toronto festival has been damaged severely and called for government support to undertake proper restoration of our celluloid classics.

He also advocated making restoration a part of film study curriculum.

Walsh said it is a critical time for cinema heritage as films are decaying and dying world over. He said preserving heritage required support, enthusiasm and money and commented "now is the time to act."

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)