‘Preservation begins when a film goes on floors’

A still from Utsav

Though director-producer Anurag Kashyap made his first movie, Paanch, more than a decade ago, he does not have its original print. Parts of his second film, Black Friday, too are lost. “Since Paanch never reached the theatres and Black Friday’s release was delayed, the lab where the latter was stored perhaps did not pay much attention to the print. Also, labs did not care about films that do not have big stars,” pointed out Kashyap, who, along with former NFAI director Suresh Chabria and Kunal, took part in the panel discussion moderated by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, the founder of FHF.

Luckily for Kunal, Junoon and 36 Chowringhee Lane were restored in the ’80s using the technique available then. Utsav, however, was less fortunate. Its negatives, kept in the Prithvi House basement, were damaged when it was flooded. “We found a copy of Utsav at NFAI. They had the copy as the government norm demanded that every National Award-winning film send a print to the NFAI for preservation.” he said.

A still from 36 Chowringhee Lane

Kunal has already made two scanned copies of Utsav — the first copy of the 1984 film was not up to the mark. With this, Kunal’s endeavour to restore five of his father’s movies is on track. However, Kunal is clueless about the monies this whole exercise will require. “I’m still ignorant about the process. I’m at the mercy of technicians,” he said. The restoration of Junoon is nearly complete. The scanned copies of others have been stored in appropriate conditions.

“The process of preserving a film begins the moment a project takes off. So, select your stock and labs carefully. The filmmaker should not rely on the government agency alone. The film industry should be aware about the importance of protecting their work,” said Kashyap. Keen on preserving all his films, he blames the industry’s attitude. “The filmmakers are worried about their opening. We need to come forward and save our work,” he added.

Though the restoration of Shashi Kapoor’s movies is currently financed by Kunal, he hopes that changing times will open up avenues to showcase these films and chalk out a revenue model. Kashyap echoed this and said movie buffs should not hesitate to pay and download the restored prints.