Showing posts with label Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. Show all posts
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur explains how he restored Pakeezah and kept its soul alive for the audiences in 2026
4:53 PM
For Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, the main challenge about restoring Pakeezah was to keep its soul alive for the audiences of 2026
Komal RJ Panchal (MID-DAY; September 27, 2026)
Midway through our conversation about restoring Pakeezah, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s phone rang. “Mr [Amitabh] Bachchan is calling me,” he said, stepping away for a moment, for Bachchan to compliment him. It was a small, fitting reminder of how much Kamal Amrohi’s 1972 classic still means to people, more than 50 years on.
For Dungarpur, this one was personal. He grew up watching Pakeezah — his grandmother loved it — and had wanted to restore it for years. That finally became possible after he met Amrohi’s children, Tajdar and Rukhsar, and, through their son Bilal, convinced the family to let him take it on. Nearly two years later, he calls it one of the most fulfilling restorations of his career.
The problem with no “mother”
The first roadblock was simple but severe: there was no original camera negative. What survived was third-generation material — copies of copies, each one having bled away detail. “The original camera negative is the most important, it’s called the mother for that reason,” Dungarpur explains.
“It’s the material that came directly out of the camera.” He compares it to the difference between a high-resolution photo and a version that’s been screenshotted and reshared a dozen times over. “If you have the source, you have the origin.”
With nothing but degraded copies to work from, the team went almost frame by frame, pulling out whatever information they could. He’d faced a similar problem restoring Sholay (1975) — but Pakeezah’s tangled colour history made this one harder still.
When a colour disappears
Pakeezah actually began life as a black-and-white film before the switch to colour, eventually shot on Eastman Kodak stock in CinemaScope. But decades on, the surviving prints couldn’t be trusted to show what those colours actually were. The clearest case was Meena Kumari’s costume in Inhi Logon — the prints had faded so badly that nobody could agree what shade it was even supposed to be.
Rather than guess, the team went back to old photographs and worked with the Amrohi family to match the dress to its real, original tones. For Dungarpur, that’s the heart of restoration: not repainting a film in whatever colours look good now, but doing the research to get back to what audiences actually saw on release.
Fourteen years in the making
Part of what makes Pakeezah so tricky is that it didn’t get made in one continuous stretch — the production dragged on for roughly 14 years. It started in black and white, including the earliest version of Inhi Logon, before shifting to colour partway through. The delay even reshaped the cast: Ashok Kumar, originally attached to the film, had aged out of his part by the time shooting resumed, and Raj Kumar stepped in as the lead. Restoring the film meant preserving something that had physically passed through several different eras of Indian cinema before it ever reached a screen — which is part of why Dungarpur sees it as a film that shaped generations after it, from Sanjay Leela Bhansali onward.
Don’t scrub away the soul
For Dungarpur, restoration isn’t about making an old film look new. It’s about keeping what made the film feel the way it did — grain included. “Grain is like the bloodstream in your body,” he says. Strip it all out chasing a spotless digital image, and you lose something essential. That matters more now that audiences are used to the over-sharpened look of streaming platforms. “What does your eye see when you open your eyes, and what does your Amazon or Netflix show you? What they show isn’t what you actually see. There’s a difference.”
Celluloid, he says, came closer to how the eye naturally perceives things — so the goal with Pakeezah wasn’t to make it look freshly shot today, but to bring back its lost detail and colour while keeping its original texture intact.
Can AI bring back what’s gone?
That same philosophy shapes how Dungarpur thinks about AI in restoration. He doesn’t dismiss it outright, but he’s wary of calling something “restoration” when it’s really recreation.
His analogy: if a piece of the Taj Mahal’s original marble falls off, the instinct should be to track down the real marble first — not swap in a nicer-looking replacement just because it’s available. “There are shops outside selling even better marble than that. We could do that too. It won’t match.”
If the original element still exists, he says, use it. If it’s truly gone, AI might have a role to play — but the line between restoring and recreating has to stay clear. “There’s a lot of manual work in film preservation right now. Maybe AI evolves into something more. Whether that makes things better, we’ll have to see.”
He points to the runaway success of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey — shot on celluloid, no digital effects, no AI — as evidence people haven’t lost their appetite for the real thing. He sees the same pull in how audiences are responding to restored classics like Sholay at Film Heritage Foundation screenings. “There must be a reason people want to connect back to their roots.”
Did you know?
International première
The restored 4K version of the 1972 classic Pakeezah is set to have its world première at the Festival Lumière in Lyon, France, in October, followed by a screening at the BFI London Film Festival in the United Kingdom.
The original negative is gone
Pakeezah’s original camera negative — the closest surviving source to what was filmed — was unavailable for the restoration. Dungarpur’s team had to work with much poorer, third-generation material.
That “pink” costume may not have been pink
The surviving prints had faded so severely that the colour of Meena Kumari’s costume in “Inhi Logon” was difficult to establish. The team referred to photographs and consulted the Amrohi family to recreate the original colour tones.
------------------------------------------
Soumya Vajpayee (MUMBAI MIRROR; October 3, 2026)
Some love affairs start early. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur’s began at three, in Bihar, at his grandmother’s side. Maharani Usha Rani of Dumraon was, he says, “absolutely crazy about Pakeezah”, and the LPs of Inhi Logon Ne and Chalte Chalte spun repeatedly at home. “The colours, the impact of Meena Kumari, the songs, the story. There was something magnetic about that film.”
Nearly six decades later, that fascination has become a two-year labour of love. This month, Film Heritage Foundation’s 4K restoration of Kamal Amrohi’s 1972 classic has its world premiere at Festival Lumière in Lyon, presented by Thierry Frémaux, before a gala premiere at the BFI IMAX during the BFI London Film Festival.
A negative gone to ruin
It very nearly did not happen. After Dungarpur persuaded Amrohi’s children, Tajdar and Rukhsaar, and grandson Bilal to entrust the film to FHF, he inspected the original camera negative. “I was utterly distraught because the film had melted,” he says. “In fact, the images from the negative had gone.”
Pakeezah already had a complicated history. Amrohi began it in 1956 in black and white, then restarted in Eastmancolor in 1958. Production stretched across some 15 years, through cast changes, rewrites and personal upheaval; part of the early negative was lost in a studio fire.
With the camera negative unusable, the restoration became cinematic archaeology. FHF turned to a 35mm interpositive in its collection and a colour reversal intermediate preserved by the NFDC-National Film Archive of India. Both bore the scars of age, from scratches and mould to chemical deterioration and faded colour. The work was undertaken at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.
“You’re almost looking at something which is third generation,” Dungarpur says. “You have to make it look like that film was one of the most important films in India’s cinematic history. That was really challenging.”
The hunt for Meena Kumari’s colours
Colour proved particularly tricky. The film had been shot across so many years that its sections had aged differently, while no member of the original crew survives to say exactly what Amrohi wanted.
His family became the restoration team’s memory bank. Rukhsaar had photographs and costume references; Tajdar, who knew the sets as a boy, remembered individual scenes. An original still helped establish the colour of Meena Kumari’s costume in Inhi Logon Ne.
“You need a reference and a history,” says Dungarpur. “The research into restoration, into piecing together the history, is very important so that you don’t go wrong.”
The aim was to preserve the richness of Josef Wirsching’s cinematography and early Eastmancolor. “Eastman Kodak had just come in, and it had very vibrant colours. I was trying to keep that vibrancy.”
There was better news with the soundtrack. The original sound negative survived, allowing Ghulam Mohammed’s music to be restored in 5.1, along with Amrohi’s own voice. Even the train demanded fidelity. “Kamal Amrohi was so particular about getting that particular sound of the train,” Dungarpur says.
Giving Amrohi his due
Dungarpur believes Amrohi himself has never quite received his place in Indian cinema. Before Pakeezah came the eerie romance of Mahal in 1949, with Lata Mangeshkar’s Aayega Aanewala, and his work on Mughal-E-Azam. Dungarpur also counts the lesser-discussed Daera among his favourites.
“Kamal Amrohi is one of the greatest Indian directors who’s not got his dues,” he says. Pakeezah, with its exquisite Urdu, music and sumptuous visual world, perhaps makes the argument most completely. “It is the language, the Urdu language, and the way it’s been crafted, and the characters, and the story in it.”
Back to the big screen
For Dungarpur, saving films also means putting them before audiences. FHF now has two functioning 35mm projectors at Mumbai’s Regal Cinema, where screenings have drawn a new audience for old films.
He wishes more of Indian cinema’s biggest names would publicly champion preservation. Christopher Nolan, who first came to India with artist Tacita Dean to advocate for celluloid, has remained a supporter of FHF with producer Emma Thomas; Wes Anderson worked with the foundation on its restoration of Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri.
“Public advocacy for film preservation is something I feel we miss in Indian cinema,” says Dungarpur, citing Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation as a model.
But Pakeezah may be the most eloquent argument he can make. “I always wanted to restore Pakeezah because it was one of my earliest memories of my childhood.” Now, all these years later, he has made sure somebody else can have that first memory too.
Chalte Chalte...Pakeezah finds her way back to the big screen
11:02 AM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; September 3, 2026)
The film survived a studio fire, a separation and two deaths along the way. Pakeezah, a film that Kamal Amrohi began shooting in 1956 as a tribute to the beauty of his wife, Meena Kumari — then a rising star, saw its fair share of hurdles in its journey till release. When the film finally arrived in 1972, Meena, who had become a huge star by then, passed away within weeks of its release.
This week, Pakeezah begins another chapter in its long journey. The Film Heritage Foundation’s new 4K restoration of Pakeezah will premiere at Festival Lumière in Lyon, France, before heading to the 70th BFI London Film Festival, scheduled from October 7 to 18. The London festival announced its lineup on Wednesday. The fest describes it as “one of the last great classical musicals of Indian cinema, the visually opulent and emotionally tragic Pakeezah is a Byzantine story of star-crossed lovers.”
FHF director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who restored the film, tells us, “The restoration of Pakeezah took two years. It has been one of the most exciting yet one of the most challenging restorations I have worked on." Even cinema experts consider it one of the most moving and most extravagant productions in Indian film history. We take a look at the iconic film's arduous journey to restoration.
I have lived with ‘Pakeezah’ almost as long as I have lived with its creator: Meena Kumari
In an interview to Star and Style just a few days after the release of the film, Meena Kumari said, "Pakeezah is the beloved, which has been born of this filmmaker’s imagination nearly two decades ago. ‘Pakeezah’ is the vision which has haunted his soul for as long as I can remember. . . I have lived with ‘Pakeezah’ almost as long as I have lived with its creator . . . For Kamal Saheb, the filmmaker, it was to be his life’s work, his raison d’etre... But both of us went back eventually, and we finished this film together – he as its creator and I as its physical, spiritual and visual embodiment.”
Meena Kumari will remain the greatest artiste the Indian screen has ever known: Ashok Kumar
In an interview to the same magazine, Ashok Kumar, who played the role of Nawab Shahabuddin, said, "Pakeezah kept me in touch with two of the biggest talents which the Indian screen will ever know – the poet-director Kamal Amrohi, and Meena Kumari, my co-star in Pakeezah and so many earlier films. She is, and will remain, probably the greatest artiste the Indian screen has ever known."
'Fire, heartbreak, separation and deaths - the 15-year making of a classic'
Pakeezah took fifteen agonizing years to make, from 1956 to its release on February 4, 1972 - plagued by a switch to colour, a studio fire, casting delays, and went over budget due to Kamal Amrohi's determination for perfectionism in each frame
The star Meena Kumari and Kamal Amrohi separated in 1964, leaving it abandoned as she struggled with alcoholism and cirrhosis. When her friends Sunil Dutt and Nargis saw the rushes, they convinced her to finish it in 1969. Along the way, German cinematographer Josef Wirsching and composer Ghulam Mohammed both died before seeing it completed.
It was released to critical acclaim; the film became a box office hit, but Meena Kumari died just weeks later. Cinema experts say that the film was released at a moment when cinema was moving away from the refined, Urdu-inflected literary style and studio aesthetic of the 1950s and 1960s toward more modern, urban, and action-oriented storytelling.
Late British film critic and historian Derek Malcolm described Pakeezah as one of the most extraordinary musical melodramas ever made.
Restoration process:
The restoration team found that Pakeezah’s original negative was almost melted and unusable, but recovered an interpositive, a CinemaScope print and a colour reversal internegative (CRI) from archival sources. With no surviving original camera negative or principal crew to consult, the team used original shooting stills and memories of Kamal Amrohi’s children, Tajdar and Rukhsaar Amrohi, to help recreate the film’s colours.
The surviving elements had scratches, mould, fading, grain, halos, vinegar syndrome and colour inconsistencies, requiring extensive digital restoration and colour correction.
The sound was restored in 5.1 using the film’s sound negative and a release print, while the restoration sought to maintain consistency across the different surviving picture elements.
Pakeezah was restored in 4K by Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with Bilal Amrohi of Lionheart Cinema.
We couldn’t have asked for a better showcase for the restored Pakeezah than the Festival Lumiere in Lyon, the birthplace of cinema: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, FHF
Ever since I forayed into the world of film restoration, it has been my dream to restore Pakeezah. I first watched the film as a child, with my grandmother, in a cinema in Dumraon, Bihar, and it has stayed with me since.
The restoration took two years and was among the hardest I've worked on. When I went to inspect the original camera negative and saw that it had almost melted, my heart sank. In my mind, I could see each frame like a painting saturated with colours, the opulent sets and the luminous beauty of Meena Kumari and the songs of Ghulam Mohammed were ringing in my ears as if it was yesterday, but not a single cast or crew member survived from the film and I wondered how I would be able to restore Kamal Amrohi’s original vision with what I had to work with.
We couldn’t have asked for a better showcase for the restored Pakeezah than the Festival Lumiere in Lyon, the birthplace of cinema, which is helmed by Thierry Frémaux, Director of the Festival Lumière and the Cannes Film Festival.
The screening in France will be followed by the UK premiere at the London Film Festival at a gala screening at the BFI IMAX.
I wish my father were alive to see his creation restored and reborn for the world to see fifty four years after it released: Rukhsar Amrohi
"Pakeezah was my father’s obsession, his dream, his oxygen that gave meaning to his life. He nurtured the film for over fifteen years like a child till it was fully matured and ready to be presented to the world. As a thirteen year-old, I witnessed the countless sacrifices my father made and the relentless dedication and perfectionism in the face of almost insurmountable challenges to make his vision a reality. I have preserved every bit of his legacy that remains in Amroha, but for years, I felt that my father’s legacy as a great master of cinema had been forgotten.
I only wish my father were alive to see his creation restored and reborn for the world to see fifty four years after it released. I cannot wait to see the restored film back on the big screen and I will be travelling to London to present the film.
New generations will see the unforgettable Meena Kumari and enjoy the beauty of the film: Tajdar Amrohi
I was at the grand premiere of Pakeezah in 1972 with my father and Choti Ammi (Meena Kumari) and the film cans arrived at Maratha Mandir in a palanquin. I never imagined that I would be presenting the restored film with my family at the gala premiere in London fifty fouryears later.
I would like to thank Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and Film Heritage Foundation for restoring the film with so much passion and meticulous care and for bringing my father and his greatest work back to life so that new generations will see the unforgettable Meena Kumari and enjoy the beauty of the film.
I remember when I was a child, my father was deep into the making of Pakeezah. Everything in our lives revolved around Pakeezah. My father had put in everything he had in the film and whenever we asked him for anything as children, his response would always be, “After Pakeezah” Pakeezah was his life’s mission. I have so many memories of the film as I would regularly visit the sets on Floor No. 3 at Filmistan where much of the film was shot. The film has influenced generations of filmmakers and even today I am sometimes asked how did he achieve some of the shots.
The Odyssey team stayed for 7 or 8 minutes; as they left, Tom Holland gave me a thumbs up, says Olympia owner
3:50 PM
Before they walked down the red carpet, Christopher Nolan, Matt Damon and Tom Holland found their way to a 108-year-old Irani café that still serves taxi drivers and Oscar winners the same cup. Here’s what else they got up to
Nisrin Saria (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 14, 2026)
There are two Mumbais every visiting celebrity encounters. One is all premieres, luxury hotels and flashing cameras. The other is discovered through recommendations. Over the past days, The Odyssey director Christopher Nolan and actors Matt Damon and Tom Holland found themselves on the latter trail.
At the Film Heritage Foundation in Ballard Estate on Friday, founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur took Nolan through the Foundation’s restoration facilities, where the director watched technicians at work on a 70mm print. For a filmmaker who has spent years championing celluloid, it was a rare opportunity to see India’s preservation efforts up close. Nolan, fans would know, has also served on Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation for over a decade. That Dungarpur’s Foundation has grown into one of the world’s leading centres for restoring and preserving films probably made it a fitting stop before The Odyssey reached Mumbai.
Photographer and filmmaker Sunhil Sippy, rarely someone to be overawed by famous names, found himself unexpectedly tongue-tied. He presented Nolan with a signed copy of Opium Of Time, his 2021 coffee-table book of monochrome photographs of Mumbai. “I was nervous when he asked me to sign it,” Sippy says. “I simply wrote, ‘What an honour.’”
That evening, Dungarpur took Nolan and actor Matt Damon to Trishna in Kala Ghoda, that has fed Bombay’s old guard for decades. Nolan was, reportedly, already familiar with that menu, having eaten there with his family on an earlier trip.
A taste of Mumbai
If Friday belonged to cinema, Saturday belonged to Mumbai. Hours before the premiere, Nolan, Damon and Holland walked into Olympia Coffee House in Colaba. Founded in 1918, the Irani café has changed little over the decades. Its marble tables have welcomed everyone from taxi drivers and office-goers to politicians and film stars, while regulars still arrive early for bun maska, chai and its famously limited roast mutton. When Mirror met owner Mufti Ilyas Abul Rahim Saji, 56, last evening, he laughed at how ordinary the afternoon had seemed.
“Around 2.30 pm, members of their team started coming in,” he says. “We thought they were regular customers. They had tea and snacks, left, then returned again.”
Only around 6 pm did anything seem unusual – because security personnel gathered outside before a van pulled up. “We didn’t recognize them,” Saji says with characteristic matter-of-factness. “They came in, sat down, had tea and spoke among themselves. Then it was time for my prayers, so I left.”
The advance team had told Olympia only that a few VIP guests would be dropping in and requested chai and bun maska. True to the café’s old-school hospitality, Saji decided that wasn’t quite enough. He asked the kitchen to send out saffron phirni and custard as well.
The Saji family bought a 50% stake in Olympia from its Iranian owner, Mohammad Mirab, in 1954, when Mirab and his cousins were returning to Iran. Three generations later, copper vessels are still used here, because, Saji insists, “the taste changes if the pot changes.”
What has never changed, he says, is the place’s philosophy. “Our customers range from taxi drivers to celebrities, but everyone is our customer and we treat them alike. Everyone gets the same service,” says Saji, explaining that they go by the principle of equality taught in Islam.
Manager Inayat Maridiya, 40, knew only that “VIP guests” were arriving. “They stayed for seven or eight minutes,” he says. “As they left, Tom Holland gave me a thumbs up. Only later did someone tell me he was Spider-Man.”
Saji laughs. “I’ve never watched the Spider-Man films.”
When word spread
By the next morning, celebrity had worked its familiar magic. Customers arrived asking for the table where Nolan, Damon and Holland had sat, and even the cups they had used. They were out of luck. “They’d already gone back into the kitchen and were mixed with the rest of the dishes, obviously,” says 30-year-old waiter Shahbuddin Khan. There were even those who hugged Shahbuddin, as though a little of Hollywood glamour might have rubbed off on him.
In less than 48 hours, three of Hollywood’s biggest names had visited three very different Mumbai institutions: one preserving the history of cinema, the other preserving the city’s everyday rituals.
I somehow knew that In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones would work even after 38 years-Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
2:30 PM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; March 30, 2026)
Moving, funny, ridiculous, nostalgic – these were reactions from 1970s college-goers at a recent screening of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989), a campus film starring Arundhati Roy and featuring a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan. For many in the audience, the film revived memories of college days.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, who restored the film, described the screenings as a reminder of cinema’s magic. “It is the magic of cinema that we witnessed at the Delhi and Mumbai screenings. The audience in India reacted in the same manner as audiences in Germany did when the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival recently. I somehow knew that the film would work even after 38 years,” he shared.
‘A film about young people who were radically different from each other’
When first made, the film’s characters were unlike anything on Indian screens – westernised, elite, English-speaking students portrayed with eccentricity and idealism, unlike the conventional characters that dominated Indian cinema at the time. Directed by Pradip Krishen and written by Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy, the film follows eccentric architecture students in a 1974 Delhi college through their final year.
Roy spoke about the strange experience of revisiting a film she made nearly four decades ago and said, “It takes a lot of courage to sit in a hall and watch yourself when you are 38 years younger. I certainly had nothing to do with the restoration. Even archiving – I’m terrible at it. I just throw things away.”
Looking back at the screenplay, Roy added with candour, “When I looked at it recently, I thought, ‘What was I thinking?’ All I can say about this film is that it’s a celebration of utter ridiculousness. Maybe at a time like this, that’s all we have to celebrate.”
She spoke about how the film captures a different kind of youth culture. “Someone asked me what Gen Z would make of it. I don’t understand all these terminologies – Gen Z, X, Y. But when I look back, I see a group of young people who were radically different from each other. They forgive each other and celebrated each other’s eccentricities.”
‘We have a heritage through this film’
Roy had initially planned to attend the screening at Berlinale but later withdrew screening at Berlinale but later withdrew when festival jury president Wim Wenders when festival jury president Wim Wenders made the statement, “We have to stay out made the statement, “We have to stay out of politics.” of politics.”
Arjun Raina, who played Annie, seeing the restored film decades later was unexpectedly emotional. He shared, “What I found very healing is that we suddenly have a heritage through this film.”
Reflecting on the spirit of the time, he offered a metaphor, “We were like creatures in a jungle – someone was a squirrel, someone was a deer – all these delightful beings living together. Then came the ’90s. The forest was cut, the wood became furniture, and our lives changed.”
Pradip Krishen shared that over the past 38 years, ten members of the cast and crew have passed away. He recalled a humorous moment from the shoot and said, “When we were filming on the street and people asked what the film was called, we shortened it to ‘Those Ones’. If someone asked, ‘Kaun si film ki shooting ho rahi hai ?’we’d say, ‘Those Ones Those Ones’ Later we overheard someone answering the same question answering the same question and saying, Do Jawan Do Jawan’”
It was Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan’s idea that I should establish a foundation to preserve our heritage-Shivendra Singh Dungarpur
4:08 PM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; February 20, 2026)
Indian classic films are finding renewed life on the global stage, with restored versions travelling to major festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and now the Berlin International Film Festival. Organizers said the screening of In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989) played to a packed house. The audience extended beyond cinephiles, with several attendees saying they came because they follow Arundhati’s work. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur noted that representatives from Criterion, Berlin Classics, and MoMA were present to discuss the renewed momentum behind Indian film restoration.
Arundhati Roy skips screening, Wim Wenders attends it
The film has been making headlines over the past few days after its writer and lead actor, Arundhati Roy decided to withdraw from the Berlinale after the film festival’s international jury president, Wim Wenders, said that filmmakers must stay out of politics. Announcing her withdrawal, Arundhati described the remarks as unconscionable.
However, Wim Wenders joined the Indian team at the Berlin Film Festival for the film’s screening. Before it began, director Pradip Krishen – who is also Arundhati Roy’s husband – addressed the audience.
He said, “I know she has a very special place for Berlin in her heart. Based on the two book tours I accompanied her on in Berlin, I believe Berlin loves her as well. But she has strong principles and strong beliefs, and I stand with her.”
‘It was Mr and Mrs Bachchan’s idea that I should establish a foundation to preserve our heritage’
As part of the festival’s focus on film heritage and preservation, a masterclass on Indian film heritage was organized in conversation with Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, moderated by Josh Siegel. Dungarpur began by reflecting on the limited awareness of film preservation in India. Recalling his early efforts to restore Kalpana, a 1940s film by Uday Shankar, he described his shock at the condition of the reels.
“At the time, people in India barely understood what film preservation meant. Despite producing over a thousand films a year, we were losing our cinematic heritage. That realization led me to document what was being lost, which eventually became a film itself, and later to founding a preservation initiative. It was Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan’s idea that I should establish a foundation to preserve our heritage.”
‘In Which Annie ... was initially called Chapter 5’
“The film was initially called Chapter 5 because it was about fifth-year students in that architecture school (as shown in the film). But we felt it was too generic a title. We wanted something that people in their 60s and 70s would relate to – and that’s why we chose the title we did. The film was screened on Doordarshan after 10.40 pm without any advance notice. It was almost as if the channel was ashamed to show it. After that, the film developed an underground following. It only lived on as a pirated, low-grade version on YouTube. It became a rite of passage for architecture students,” said director Pradip Krishen.
‘The focus has always been on grassroots’
Josh Siegel placed the discussion in a broader institutional context. “MoMA has a long history of presenting Indian cinema dating back to the 1930s, particularly from the 1950s. I cannot overestimate the contribution you have made,” he said.
Dungarpur explained that the foundation chose to work across regions and languages. “We began restoring films across languages and regions – Malayalam, Odia, Manipuri, and others and also extended our work beyond India, collaborating on archival efforts in Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan. The focus has always been grassroots: training people, building smaller regional archives, and working directly on the ground.”
Restored & reborn: The 4K revolution reviving Indian cinema
10:00 AM
With recent film releases providing more misses than hits, the industry has turned to restoring old classics in 4K. Rajesh N Naidu writes about what this trend portends for our movie-going experience
Rajesh N Naidu (THE ECONOMIC TIMES; November 12, 2025)
Films from a bygone era are getting a new lease of life, in restored, 4K resolution. It’s introducing a new generation of audiences to cinematic legends, but it’s also having another, more unexpected benefit: It’s bringing families closer.
Imagine a situation in which a grandfather and his grandson are leaving a theatre after watching the 4K restored version of the 1957 Hindi classic Pyaasa. The grandson, a product of today’s highly visual world, says, “The dream song in Pyaasa was shot so well for its time.”
After almost a minute, the grandfather asks the grandson, “Didn’t you like the ‘lift’ metaphor in the scene after the dream song in which Mala Sinha’s character unconsciously conveys to Guru Dutt’s character that she wanted to rise in life and wouldn’t settle for a relatively poor and impractical life with him?’ The grandson says, “Yes, that scene was also shot so well” The grandfather smiles and understands that he relived what he had cherished from the classic and his grandson experienced what he chose to experience—an exquisite marriage of ‘substance’ and ‘visual fidelity’. And just like that, the two, generations apart, have something to bond over as they leave the theatre.
This is a common experience for many Indians in recent months, as several old classics in many regional languages are being re-released in theatres following a 4K restoration. Films such as Awara (1951), Pyaasa (1957), Silsila (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Chandni (1989), Samrajyam (1990), Ravanaprabhu (2001) and Varsham (2004) all got theatrical re-releases, and industry observers have said there is a line-up of at least six more films which are undergoing restoration. These include Pakeezah (1972), The Godfather II (1974) and Shiva (1989).
“Film restoration has two benefits: One is preservation, where you restore a valuable piece of film, but which may not make money even after a theatrical release. And second, you restore a classic like Sholay, which is likely to be a commercial success as well. This differentiation of films is key,” said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and director, Film Heritage Foundation, a non-profit that’s into restoration.
The Film Heritage Foundation, in association with director Martin Scorsese’s film restoration company, Film Foundation, restored Uday Shankar’s 1948 film Kalpana in 2012, the first Indian film to be restored in 4K.
Need of the hour
At a time when more mainstream cinema is being rejected for being too crass, violent or over-the-top, audiences are craving the simplicity of stories and depth of the performances from another era. Meanwhile, a different set of viewers appreciate the grand expanse of a visually clear classic on 70mm film. The re-released masterpieces thus offer something to everyone, creating a celebratory environment where the two sections of viewers appreciate old classics in their own unique ways.
This wave of restorations can also be attributed to more and better access to mobile streaming. “In the past few years, people have become used to a certain quality of content which they consume on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, etc,” explained Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment.
If anything, streamers and platforms don’t even prefer to accept films that aren’t in 4K anymore. “Rights holders of old films in 4K version have an advantage over rights holders of the same old film in a non-4K version, because avenues of monetizing films are limited for the latter,” said Sushil Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Ultra Media and Entertainment Group.
Pandemic boom
The trend properly took off during the pandemic. With millions of people locked down at home and the pipeline of new films firmly turned off, restored films became a lifeline. “During Covid, there was no new content. It was a steady supply of old films in 4K which [entertained] audiences,” said Kavita Prasad, managing director, Prasad Corporation, one of the oldest film laboratories in India.
Even post-lockdown, in the early phase, it was film festivals honouring legendary actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and A Nageshwar Rao, organized by the Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with rights holders of these films, that revived footfalls in theatres. “The Amitabh Bachchan Film Festival in October 2022, which showed 11 of his films, was a phenomenal success. It did two things: It brought people back into cinema halls, which wasn’t happening since Covid. And it showed the success of old classics,” Dungarpur said.
“It then culminated with the release of 4K versions of Telugu film icon A Nageshwar Rao’s movies on his birth centenary in September last year.”
Poor box-office performance of new Hindi films in the past few years has also hastened the trend. “Today, most new films don’t run beyond a week or 15 days. Multiplexes with multiple screens need [more] content. This need is being fulfilled by the old classics in 4K. In the South, this trend has caught on quite a bit thanks to the loyal fan bases of actors,” Prasad added.
And then, there are the producers who look at it as a form of reviving cultural memories and reliving nostalgia. “Nostalgia has value and it always sells. The 4K restoration movement marks a turning point for Indian cinema. It is about reviving our cultural memory for a new generation of audiences. It also provides today’s audiences opportunities to experience the same grandeur and emotion that once defined the golden age of Hindi cinema,” explained Suniel Wadhwa, co-founder and director, Karmic Films.
Talking business
But this has also triggered a natural question among industry observers: Will it be a fleeting trend, or does it make long-term business sense? One key advantage of restoring old films is the cost.
According to leading film laboratories, restoring an old film in 4K costs about Rs 20 to 60 lakh, depending on the condition of the original source material. “The cost of restoring old films is lesser than making a new film. One would have to invest at least Rs 10 to 50 crore to make a new film. But restoring an old film not only costs less, but also saves on marketing costs. Moreover, these films have already been made and were proven to have an appeal among audiences,” Prasad added.
But not all old classic films (especially Hindi) restored in 4K have met with success. “We restored a bunch of Guru Dutt films. But not all of them worked out commercially. There were no takers for Baaz (1953), but Pyaasa (1957) worked,” shared Sushil Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Ultra Media and Entertainment Group, which restored Guru Dutt’s films.
So, rights holders of these old films have been forming portfolios of 10-15 restored movies and then gauging their long-term performance, instead of assessing those of individual restored works. “A portfolio of old films restored in 4K can easily provide an internal rate of return (annual return) of at least 20% in the next three to five years post its restoration,” Gada added.
Companies which are into the business of film restoration also pointed out that 4K films provide premium advertising rates on CTVs and YouTube. According to a recent study by media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media, the CTV audience in India has grown by 85% to 129.2 million in 2025 from 69.7 million in 2024, reflecting the swift adoption of CTVs.
“Restoration is a one-time exercise. It increases a film’s reach significantly. A film’s rights holder can monetize it on more, bigger or better screens, targeting more premium audiences,” Gada said. “A 4K film on CTVs can easily fetch premium advertising rates, as it is targeted specifically to premium viewers who prefer superior visual quality,” added Gada.
At present, on average, at least 10% of libraries of aggregators have been restored in 4K, including other stages of upgradation in the visual format. Overall, these aggregators have restored 80-90% of their libraries in HD formats. And in the coming years, the restoration of films in 4K is likely to increase even further, given the available avenues for monetization. Industry observers believe that a lack of clarity regarding the lineup of new Hindi films for the next year may also work in the restored films’ favour.
They also believe that a genuine classic made 20 years later will have takers rather than merely re-releasing an old film in 4K. “A classic film which has a popular appeal can provide a huge 300-400% profit when monetized through theatrical and non-theatrical ways. Genuine classics have better stories which are highly engaging. People relate to these and want to see them in a better proposition, like in 4K,” explained Koushik Bhattacharya, founder, Quality Matters, a company which is into film restoration.
Understanding: What is a 4K film?
4K is essentially a display resolution of a screen. A 4K film typically shows the size of a screen horizontally and vertically in terms of pixels. Typically, a 4K film would have the following format: 4096 (size of the horizontal screen) x 2160 (size of the vertical screen) pixels.
| NFDC-NFAI Charges for 4K Film Restoration | ||
| Key Components | Per minute charge* | **Charge for 2-hour film |
| Reel Assessment & Storage | Free | Free |
| Digitisation and Grading in 4K | Rs2216 | Rs2.66 lakh |
| Restoration & Digitisation in 4K | Rs22836 | Rs27.40 lakh |
| Includes GST* | ||
| Estimated charges** | ||
50 Years of Sholay: How just another dacoit tale went on to become a fable
9:13 AM
Sholay was initially declared a flop and panned by critics. Now, the all-time blockbuster — celebrating its 50th birthday on Aug 15 — is regarded as the ‘best’ and ‘greatest’ film in polls. An exploration of how director Ramesh Sippy’s film lives in our heads through its dialogues and characters
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; August 10, 2025)
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; August 10, 2025)
It was a warm but amiable night in Bologna. By the time the open-air screening started at the north Italian town’s sprawling Piazza Maggiore, it was already 10 pm. Yet, at least 2,000 cinephiles, mostly Italians, had turned up. This was Sholay’s restored, uncut version — an intimidating three hours and 24 minutes in length — at the Il Cinema Ritrovato festival. “But the audience was glued, watching in pin-drop silence. When the film ended at 1.30 am, the cheering was incredible. Sholay is timeless,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, whose Film Heritage Foundation has restored the film.
If the viewers’ reaction in Italy in June reaffirmed Sholay’s enduring appeal across countries and generations, an X post made by Iran’s Consulate General in Mumbai in July revealed the film’s abiding impact. “Many Iranians still associate #Bollywood with this epic,” it said, adding that a newspaper in Iran had published a full-pager commemorating the movie’s 50 years.
There’s something about Sholay. Even the biggest blockbusters eventually recede from memory. With director Ramesh Sippy’s multi-starrer, the obverse seems to be true. Sholay never left us. The movie breathes in our lives through its dialogues, which have become like proverbs, and lives in our heads through its characters. When anyone says, ‘Basanti’, we know who. In India, there’s only one Basanti. As filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says, “Nations are not built by borders. They are held together by stories. Sholay has transcended cinema. It is one of the stories that holds India together.”
The film talks to different generations in different ways. For old-timers, Sholay is inseparable from their youth, a living memory of life as it used to be. For their progeny, and their progeny, it is a family fable they have imbibed like food, and consequently discovered on TV, internet or OTT. “Some films refuse to fade because they don’t just entertain us, they actually become us,” says Bhatt. The film is a connector.
How Gabbar got embossed in our lives
The marketing men of Polydor, a record company with the film’s rights, were critical to the tattooing of Sholay into our collective consciousness. In her award-winning book, journalist Anupama Chopra writes how Polydor executives, worried at the lukewarm sales of the music album, noticed the audience being captivated by Salim-Javed’s dialogues. Within a month, a 58-minute long-playing record was released. It turned out to be a stroke of marketing genius. A TOI article noted in 1976, “the earthy outpourings of the Sholay film track” has sold “phenomenally well”. Sholay was the first film that India heard as much as it saw.
Seventies India was an audio world. This was a time when the middle-class lined up to buy rationed sugar. For most, television was just a photograph shown to nursery kids to teach the letter, ‘T’. Even record players were restricted to a thin socio-economic band. India was primarily a radio country. Paan shop transistors would tune in to Radio Ceylon or Vividh Bharati through the day.
Against this backdrop, Sholay’s dialogues blared for months at homes, in shops, markets and fairs in Inner India’s small towns, kasbahs and mofussils. By repetition of listening, even pre-teens could recall every dialogue, just like multiplication sums. Some remembered the film by heart.
The first time this reporter saw the film at a theatre, the experience was mixed. A guy sitting in the row behind would pre-empt every dialogue. He stopped only after someone told him that all of us could do the same and there was no need to show off.
This was also the first film where the most popular dialogues were delivered by the bad guy, Gabbar, played superlatively by Amjad Khan, and not the hero. “The dialogues reached a transcendental level. They are proverbial, aphoristic, dramatic. And they are fundamental to an Indian imagination in a filmy sense,” says social scientist Shiv Viswanathan.
The dialogues became unforgettable because the characters were unforgettable. “Sholay is an archetypical memory. Every character from Gabbar to Basanti to Raheem chacha, is archetypical. They all create a culture, a memory and possibility of new imitations,” he says.
Even the smallest of characters haven’t been forgotten. “Keshto Mukherjee’s cameo of a barber named Hariram is still remembered,” says film director Anil Sharma.
Stories, real and apocryphal
Mac Mohan acted in over 300 movies. In Sholay, his presence was reduced to sitting with a gun on a faraway rock. He got to say just three words, “Poorey pachaas hazaar”. But Sambha, his character’s name, became his lifelong identity. Just like Viju Khote, the recipient of Gabbar’s simple but scary one-liner, “Tera kya hoga, Kaalia?”.
In a 2015 interview, Khote told this reporter that the temperamental horse he rode threw him off at least six times. His remuneration for the aches and bruises was just Rs. 2,500. Fortunately, he did not break any bones.
Real or apocryphal, there is another story, wherein a groom refused to take the sacred vows unless the film’s dialogues were played. The missing record was brought and played. The wedding was solemnized.
For a film that has turned into lore, it is hard to believe that Sholay was dismissed as a flop in the early days of its release. In his autobiography, And Then One Day, actor Naseeruddin Shah writes about watching Sholay, running in its second week, at a “half-empty” theatre in Andheri, Bombay. Shah also writes that the blame for the failure was pinned on newbie Amjad.
Sharma, director of the megahit, Gadar, recalls coming home after watching the movie and being told by a film industry client of his father, an astrologer, “‘Sun rahe hain film flop ho gayi. Log Sholay ko Chholey (chickpeas) bol rahe hain.’ I had liked the film and told them so. But they were dismissive and said, you are too young to know about the film business. We got into a row.”
Sharma also loved the film’s impressive stereophonic sound. “When the coin was tossed and tinkled after falling on the ground, people would start looking for it beneath their seats,” he remembers.
Critics admitted to Sholay’s technological excellence but roundly panned the movie. The Illustrated Weekly of India (now defunct), a sister publication of The Times of India, said in its review: “There is nothing in the script of Salim-Javed to make this ‘the greatest story ever told’, it is just another dacoit tale on the lines of Mujhe Jeene Do, Gunga Jumna, Mera Gaon Mera Desh.”
The Statesman (New Delhi edition) said: “For nearly four hours, this film assaults one’s senses psychologically, emotionally and at the end almost physically.” Sunday Standard called it “a shaggy dog Western, sporadically funny, ludicrously heroic, monstrously violent and sprawled in loose limbed abandon”. Most reviews, barring Weekly, also ignored Amjad’s performance. The film received just one Filmfare award — for M S Shinde’s editing.
But over the decades, the film has been reappraised. In a classic case of overcompensation, Sholay was declared ‘The Best Film of 50 Years’ by Filmfare in 2005. In 2002, a British Film Institute poll hailed it as the ‘greatest’ Indian film ever made. The good times continue. “The movie is set for gala screenings at festivals in Toronto, London and New York in the coming months,” says Dungarpur.
But the critical re-evaluation aside, Sholay has become more than a movie, it has become a myth. Sharma sums it up, “Sholay now belongs to the public, not to the maker. The film has ruled over people’s hearts for 50 years. It will continue to do so for another 50 years.”
----------------------------------------
‘Fingerprint of Emergency etched in Sholay’s ending’
Sholay was released during the repressive Emergency, which lasted 21 months. Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says that in a symbolic sense, “Thakur, whose hands are chopped off, represented the common person’s ‘wounded conscience’. Like the people, he is ‘hungry for justice’ and helpless.” Bhatt was also shooting with Sanjeev Kumar, who memorably played ‘Thakur’, for Vishwasghaat (1977) at the same time. It is well known that Sholay’s ending, where Gabbar is arrested by cops, was forced upon the filmmaker by the censors. In the original ending, now brought back in the latest restored version, the villain meets a gory death.
“With that imposed ending, the fingerprint of those draconian times is etched on the enduring commercial classic, a reminder of the time of repression we lived in,” says Bhatt.
— Avijit Ghosh
Before multiplexes: What cinema tickets once said about you
7:57 AM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; August 2, 2025)
When Amitabh Bachchan recently shared a ticket from a Sholay screening, what caught attention was the seat classification printed in bold: Special Class. According to film experts, such tickets reflect a long-forgotten language of cinema-going in India. Your seat didn’t just determine your view, it also revealed your social standing. “It wasn’t a standard classification at all cinemas. But the ticket is from Excelsior cinema in Bombay (Mumbai), where the last few rows, separated from the main cluster of seats, were called Special Class,” says film historian Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
Today, watching a film is a different experience – with recliners, gourmet snacks, and curated drinks, it feels more like a luxe night out. But it wasn’t always this fancy. Experts say old movie tickets act like time capsules, capturing how your seat reflected both access and your place in society.
‘Front bench full hai toh film hit hai – yeh criteria tha hit film ka’
The front bench was as crucial as the director’s name on the poster. “Front bench full hai toh film hit hai – yeh criteria tha hit film ka,” laughs Alok Diesh, a veteran in the cinema business, who was around long before ticketing apps came along. He says that the front bench was rowdy and loud. If those seats – often the cheapest and closest to the screen – were packed, it meant the film had made its way to the masses.
Chaitanya Prasad, a moviegoer in his 60s, recalls, “Balcony seats were always something to envy. It was almost like winning a medal if you got a ticket for the latest release. So, a balcony ticket was just something we could only wish for as students. And some places, like Regal, even had box seats for VIPs.”
“Cinema owner toh DM se bada hota tha!” jokes film distributor Sanjay Ghai. “DM bhi film ki ticket ke liye usi ko phone karta tha. If the show was full, the manager would actually put the phone aside to avoid requests.”
The balcony, the box, and the dress circle
Cine experts say that back in the day, your seat at the movies didn’t just decide your view – it said something about who you were. “In the ’50s and ’60s, men and women wouldn’t sit together. They had separate seats,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. “Then came the idea that families could sit together. Later, the halls were redesigned to include balconies, dress circles, stalls. The stalls were closer to the projection and had a better angle. The dress circle was more separated and above.”
Film historian Gautam Chintamani describes seating at that time as highly stratified. “Roughly 65–80% of a cinema hall consisted of regular seats. Above those, you had the balcony, dress circle, and family boxes – small private enclosures with curtains or side doors. It used to be reserved for VIPs or people who didn’t want to be seen. So the seating reflected that hierarchy,” he says.
From places of leisure to places of luxury – the evolution of cinema seating
Post-Emergency (1975), while film content shifted towards escapism, the kind of audience frequenting cinema halls also changed. A certain segment of society – families and the working-class continued going to theatres. For them, cinema was an escape. You could smoke during interval (inside the cinema), have a cold drink and unwind. Seating reflected this shift, as theatres became places of affordable leisure for the masses.
Technological upkeep of theatres declined in the late 80s. India had 70mm theatres, grand halls with large seating capacities, but over time, infrastructure deteriorated.
Filmmaker Mansoor Khan once mentioned how he visited a theatre to watch Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and found the doors didn’t shut completely, allowing light to spill onto the screen, and how 300–400 chairs creaked due to lack of oiling or maintenance. This decline shows the type of audience that still came to theatres – mainly lower and middle classes – while the elite moved towards home entertainment.
A significant shift happened with Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) . For the first time, a filmmaker gave theatre owners a checklist – unless the cinema had a particular sound system, clean restrooms (especially for women), and quality snacks, the film would not be released. This forced theatres to upgrade their infrastructure.
By late 90s, multiplexes like Priya in Delhi ushered in a new era. With advanced sound, better projection, and more comfortable seating, the expectations around what a cinema experience should feel like changed. By the 2000s, theatres began offering recliners, blankets, and luxury lounges. Cinema-going became an upscale, family-friendly outing.
– Film historian Gautam Chintamani
Restored Do Bigha Zamin to premiere at Venice
8:59 AM
The restored version of Bimal Roy’s film will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the Venice Classics section. Meanwhile, Bandini, Devdas and Madhumati are also being restored
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; July 13, 2025)
Do Bigha Zamin (1953) marked a turning point in Indian cinema. While most films of that era were shot within the confines of a studio, director Bimal Roy broke the mould and took the camera to the streets, paving the way for realism in Indian filmmaking. Now the film, restored by the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), the Criterion Collection and Janus Films, will be screened at the Venice Film Festival’s Classics section.
Gulzar, who worked with Roy, spoke to us about the film’s legacy. “It’s amazing that Do Bigha Zamin is restored and will be shown in Venice. The most important element is that all of his films were based on literature. Not many people know that Do Bigha Zamin is based on a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, with the same title.”
How was the film restored
Do Bigha Zamin was restored in 4K by the Criterion Collection and Janus Films, in collaboration with Film Heritage Foundation, at L’Immagine Ritrovata and Resillion, and in association with the Bimal Roy family.
The restoration process took over three years. It began in 2022, when the Criterion Collection/Janus Films and Film Heritage Foundation initiated the project. The FHF accessed the original camera negative and sound negative, which had been deposited by the Bimal Roy family at the NFDC–National Film Archive of India (NFAI) for preservation.
However, the sound negative presented several issues, including poor audio quality, interrupted dialogues, and missing sections. The original camera negative was also incomplete. A combined dupe negative - on Dupont/Kodak stock from 1954–55 was found at the British Film Institute (BFI) which was also used for the restoration
The restoration drew from the best surviving elements the 35 mm picture and sound negatives preserved at NFAI and the 35 mm combined dupe negative from the BFI.
Bimal da was the coolest director I have ever seen: Gulzar
I started working with Bimal da, who we used to call Dada, from the film “Kabuliwala” when I was his chief assistant. I have very fond memories of that time. People would say that Bimal-da was like a married print. In those days, the picture and sound negatives were separate and when they were brought together optically to make the release print, it would be called a married print.
Bimal da would shoot two shifts in a day – 7 am to 2 pm and 2 pm to 10 pm and would then sit in the editing room working till late night at Mohan Studios. People would say that he is married to films.
Bimal da was the coolest director I have ever seen. I learnt not only filmmaking from him, but the art of patience and stamina.
I am sharing a poetic portrait that I wrote on Bimal-da.
"The softly flowing river face shrouded in the evening mists
Eyes burning in the mistiness of a tawny visage
The spiral of smoke from the endlessly burning cigarette
The faraway voice heavy with sleep.
Shadowed below unknown thoughts that flew above
A face that seemed etched out of molten wax
The sound of every new dream transforms him
Making it seem he would neither sleep, nor wake, nor speak
A silent flowing river shrouded in evening mists."
(From the book “Caged . . .Memories Have Names”)
'Do Bigha Zamin changed the face of Indian cinema: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of Film Heritage Foundation
Do Bigha Zamin changed the face of Indian cinema that brought filmmakers out of the studio to begin shooting on the streets. I am so happy that we were able to collaborate with The Criterion Collection/Janus Films to restore not only Do Bigha Zamin, but other classics of Bimal Roy like Devdas, Madhumati and Bandini, which are in the process of being restored.”
Do Bigha Zamin, is an unspoken autobiography of Bimal Roy: Rinki Roy Bhattacharya, Aparajita Roy Sinha, Joy Bimal Roy
After watching Vittorio De Sica’s film Bicycle Thieves, our father hoped Indian films would follow its deeply moving humanist vision. Do Bigha Zamin, is an unspoken autobiography of Bimal Roy who was cast off from his home in East Bengal in a similar episode like the hero, peasant, Sambhu Mahato. He never recovered from this cruel separation from his beloved birthplace.
Satyajit Ray on “Do Bigha Zamin”
“With his very first film Udayer Pathe (Humrahi in Hindi), Bimal Roy was able to sweep aside the cobwebs of the old tradition and introduce a realism and subtlety that was wholly suited to the cinema. He was undoubtedly a pioneer. He reached his peak with a film that still reverberates in the minds of those who saw it when it was first made. I refer to Do Bigha Zamin, which remains one of the landmarks of Indian cinema.”
Raj Kapoor on “Do Bigha Zamin”
Perhaps the best compliment came from Raj Kapoor, who upon watching the film, reportedly said, “I wish I had made this film.”
50 years later, Sholay to return to cinemas in restored version
9:36 AM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; June 23, 2025)
This August, Sholay will turn 50. And the celebration has already begun - thousands of miles away from Ramgarh - in a theatre where Fellini once ruled. Next week, Italy is hosting the world premiere of the newly restored, uncut version of Ramesh Sippy’s iconic film at II Cinema Ritrovato Festival.
When it was first released in 1975, Sholay turned into a phenomenon - running for over five years in some theatres. While Dharmendra calls it “duniya ka aathwan ajuba,” Amitabh Bachchan says, “At the time, I had no idea it would be a watershed for Indian cinema.”
Now, five decades later, the film is returning to theatres in a restored version. As it prepares for its comeback on Indian screens this August, we take a look at how the restoration came to life.
Shooting for Sholay was an unforgettable experience: Amitabh Bachchan
Reminiscing the film, Amitabh Bachchan says, “Some things in life remain permanently etched in your mind. Sholay is one such film. Shooting for the film was an unforgettable experience, but at the time I had no idea that it would be a watershed for Indian cinema. Its dramatic change in fortunes from being declared an unsuccessful venture, to its record-breaking box office run was an emotional rollercoaster for all of us.I hope that even 50 years later, the film will capture the imagination of new audiences across the world.”
Can’t wait for Sholay to begin its new lease of life: Shehzad Sippy
Talking about the restoration, Producer Shehzad Sippy, shares, "It has taken us three years, but we were able to find the original ending and some deleted scenes that the world will see for the first time at the grand premiere at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna. I can’t wait for ‘Sholay’ to begin its new lease of life.”
‘This world premiere in Italy is a recognition of Sholay's place in global cinematic history’
“Sholay is often described as the greatest Indian film ever made,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation. As he talks about the restoration, he says, “I know every frame and every dialogue of the film by heart. Sholay was a masterpiece of passion that generations of Indians have loved and seen time and time again. Despite the fact that we could not use the original camera negative and that not a single 70mm print survives, we have left no stone unturned to ensure that this historic film has been beautifully restored. The Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival is renowned for its dedication to showcasing restored and classic films. This world premiere marks not just a celebration of a film, but a recognition of its enduring power and its place in global cinematic history."
I am thrilled to hear that the film is being restored: Dharmendra
I am thrilled to hear that the film is being restored and I am sure it will have the same success as it had 50 years ago. Who can forget the dialogues of Salim-Javed and the direction of Ramesh Sippy? So many scenes have gone down in the history of Indian cinema.
The restoration over three years
- In 2022, Shehzad Sippy began discussions with the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) to restore Sholay
- Original 35mm camera and sound negatives were found in a Mumbai warehouse. Additional film elements were located at Iron Mountain in the UK, with support from the British Film Institute (BFI)
- Reels from Mumbai and London were sent to L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna for restoration. The original camera negative was too damaged to use. The team worked with interpositives from both cities
- A colour reversal intermediate found in London included the original ending and two deleted scenes
- The FHF also sourced the original Arri 2C camera used to shoot the film. With no surviving 70mm prints, veteran cinematographer Kamlakar Rao, who had worked alongside Sholay's DOP Dwarka Divecha, was consulted
- The final restored version combines two inter-positives and two colour reversal intermediates, bringing back the director’s original vision, including the lost scenes and original ending
Did You Know?
The original ending and previously deleted scenes that were not part of the widely distributed theatrical cut of Sholay. They have been included in the restored version.
Raj Khosla’s legacy to be celebrated on his centenary through screenings, panel discussion
8:56 AM
To mark director Raj Khosla’s birth centenary, Film Heritage Foundation to screen his hits, and host panel discussion with Asha Parekh and Mahesh Bhatt tomorrow
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; May 30, 2025)
Ask cinephiles their favourite Raj Khosla movie, and the answers will widely vary — some will choose the noir CID (1956), others, the mystery drama Woh Kaun Thi? (1964), and some others, Dostana (1980). The one thing they will agree on, however, is that the director was a master across genres. It is this mastery that Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) aims to celebrate with the retrospective, Raj Khosla 100 — Bambai Ka Babu, at Regal Cinema in Mumbai tomorrow.
Marking the filmmaker’s birth centenary, the day-long celebration will feature a panel discussion with veteran actor Asha Parekh, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, and Amborish Roychoudhury, author of Khosla’s biography. Not just that, his classics — including CID, Bombai Ka Babu (1960), and Mera Gaon Mera Desh (1971) — will be screened.
Parekh, who had worked with the late director on several films, remembers him as one who put his leading ladies at the centre of the narrative, at a time when they were largely sidelined. “Do Badan [1966], Chirag [1969], Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki [1978], and Mera Gaon Mera Desh are among my favourite films. Before [working] with Raj Khosla, I was known more for my dancing and glamorous roles. Do Badan changed people’s perception of me as an actor who could perform serious roles. He was a fine filmmaker,” she reminisces.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, FHF, notes that Khosla successfully dabbled in many genres in his three-decade career. “I’d describe him as the Howard Hawks of Indian cinema for his ability to successfully make films in every genre. He excelled in song picturisation, and was known for having strong female characters in his films.”
Wes Anderson was curious to know what Satyajit Ray was like-Sharmila Tagore
8:20 AM
(From left) Co-stars Simi Garewal and Sharmila Tagore ahead of Aranyer Din Ratri’s screening; (right) (From left) Wes Anderson with Sharmila Tagore at Cannes. Pics/Getty Images, AFP, Wikimedia Commons, Instagram
Sharmila Tagore talks all things Cannes — from the standing ovation for Aranyer Din Ratri, to discussing Satyajit Ray movies with noted filmmaker Wes Anderson
Upala KBR (MID-DAY; May 24, 2025)
The thunderous applause, the standing ovation, and the pride she felt to be at the receiving end of it all. It’s a precious memory that Sharmila Tagore will keep close to her heart for a long time. “There was a standing ovation for a few minutes. People just clapped and clapped and clapped. We were getting tired of standing,” laughs Tagore, who returned only a few days ago from the special screening of Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.
On May 20, a restored 4K version of late Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece was screened as part of the Cannes Classics section. Tagore and Simi Garewal, who had featured in the gem alongside late Soumitra Chatterjee, attended the event with noted American filmmaker Wes Anderson. Mention Anderson, who led Aranyer Din Ratri’s restoration and presented it at the film gala, and Tagore heaps praise on him.
“He was so respectful about Satyajit Ray, interested in and well-informed about his films. He was curious to know what Soumitra and Ray were like. I felt silly because I was not as well-informed [about his latest movies] as he was about ours. I have seen The Grand Budapest Hotel [2014], but not Asteroid City [2023], or I would have asked him about it.”
The veteran actor is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival. After all, her 1960 movie Devi, directed by Ray, was in contention for the Palme d’Or at the 1962 edition of the prestigious film gala; in 2009, she was part of the festival’s jury. She is not surprised that this time too, it is Ray’s creation that has taken her back to the French Riviera.
Remembering the auteur who launched her in the movies, she says, “Sometime in the 1980s, I had interviewed Manik da [Ray] for Eyewitness [TV show]. When I asked him his favourite movies, he mentioned the Apu Trilogy, Charulata [1964], and Aranyer Din Ratri. Aranyer… was his first foray into contemporary cinema after his period films.”
It’s a privilege to have worked with Ray. Tagore knows she is among those fortunate few who had the privilege many times over. How was the legend at work? It’s a question, we’re sure, many asked her.
“I remember the scene in Aranyer… where my character shares that her mother had died in a forest. Before filming, Manik da came very close to me and read out that scene once. So, I did whatever he told me to do. As a director, he would read out the scene and then leave it to the actor to perform. If there was something he didn’t like in your performance, he would come very close to you and say, ‘Can you do it differently, please?’ We always got a lot of confidence seeing him behind the camera, looking at us. We knew he wouldn’t let us perform badly.”
Talking about Ray without mentioning Chatterjee is almost impossible. Tagore, who starred alongside the late Bengali actor in several films, must have missed him in Cannes. “Yes, and Rabi da [Rabi Ghosh, actor] too! I miss Soumitra continuously. He was one of my dearest friends, and he was not just a good actor; he could sing, write, and paint. He was truly a Renaissance man.”
With Cannes behind her, Tagore now hopes that Aranyer Din Ratri’s restored version is released in India. In fact, the veteran actor urges that the classics of Indian cinema be restored.
“If films are not restored, they will disappear. By restoring them, the new generation can see these films. I will request Shivendra Singh Dungarpur to make sure that Aranyer… is released in theatres across India.”
Growing number of young people have gotten estranged from the experience of seeing films in theatres-Wim Wenders
8:48 AM
German filmmaker Wim Wenders talks about the future of films and the artistic challenges before the visual art
Avijit Ghosh (THE TIMES OF INDIA; February 5, 2025)
Wim Wenders is a master of modern cinema. The 79-year-old German filmmaker’s oeuvre includes Paris, Texas (1984), Wings of Desire (1987) and, more recently, Perfect Days (2023). Invited by Film Heritage Foundation, Wenders will be in India — his first trip here — today. In an email interview with TOI, he talks about the future of films and the artistic challenges before the visual art.
You have been making films since 1967. You have made road movies, character-driven films, science fiction, music video, TV commercials, opera. Perfect Days, which maps the life of a public toilet cleaner in Tokyo, has been much-acclaimed. What is your driving force?
My driving force is curiosity and to pose, again and again, the burning question: “How should we live?” The conditions under which we live as humanity change constantly and fast. We’re adjusting constantly. My films are not necessarily giving answers to that question, but they’re constantly in search of possible answers. Maybe the most poignant one in that regard was Until The End Of The World, a film that anticipated the impact of the digital revolution on our visual culture. It was shot in 1990 and tried to look 10 years ahead into the future; it takes place in the year 2000. Now that year is long gone, but the film still offers a powerful first look at what was going to happen to mankind.
As a philosopher of cinema, what would you say are the biggest creative challenges of the times? Is it Artificial Intelligence?
I’m not scared of AI. But I’m deeply disturbed by the deterioration of truth in public life and the massive and ever-growing amount of lies, of misleading and false information. We have huge parts of populations unaware of the propaganda and falsehoods they take as ‘reality’, for granted. The worst, however, is the common disinterest and lack of knowledge for history, even among politicians. You’d think that people wouldn’t go for the same nationalist paroles and promises that already ruined our civilization in enough wars and conflicts. But they seem eager to repeat the same recipes.
OTT channels such as Netflix and Amazon Prime have come to dominate middle-class lives across the globe. How do you see this development?
Streamers grow bigger and bigger. They were propelled fast-forward by the pandemic. They’re slowly pushing independent distributors and producers out of business. Also, a growing number of young people have gotten estranged from the experience of seeing films in theatres, together with others. They got used to getting all that “content” and much more at home. Some of them never really experienced movie theatres as a social institution, so they don’t even miss it. I find that a sad development in an overall world culture that makes people more and more solitary.
Films are a part of our cultural history and heritage. But celluloid fades. Since you have been personally involved in the restoration of your own films, how do you look at the process?
I’m happy that right now, all over the world, films are being restored, so that some of our greatest cultural treasures of the 20th century are being preserved. In India, the Film Heritage Foundation is doing amazing work. It is our connection and dedication to film preservation, I guess, that gave Shivendra Singh Dungarpur the idea to invite me to India for this five-city retrospective. My foundation is also extremely engaged in this field. Fifteen of the 18 films we show in India are restored versions. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to talking with Indian audiences!
On a different note. You are a fan of Borussia Dortmund. French writer Albert Camus once said, “Everything I know about morality and the obligations of men, I owe it to football.” What does football mean to you?
I tend to agree with Camus. Football can be a great metaphor for the best in us, morally and as far as ‘character’ is concerned. But ever since he said this, the world has evolved, and not really for the better. “The Beautiful Game” has been extremely commercialized and therefore, much to my dismay, has lost some of its moral qualities and even some of its playfulness. I still follow it passionately, and I have my favourite teams in other leagues, not just in the Bundesliga in Germany. I follow Liverpool in England, Naples in Italy — both not always so much at the top of the game as today. Some of my teams have even disappeared in second leagues in France or Spain. But I keep my hopes up for them.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)