Ray's films among 20 classics to be digitized

Ray's films among 20 classics to be digitized

Some 20 classic Indian movies, including five made by legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray, are likely to be available in home video formats such as Blu-ray discs and DVDs next year.




Cameo Digital Systems Pvt. Ltd is currently restoring these films to support the high-definition formats for the National Film Development Corp. of India, or NFDC. The project is part of the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry's '660 crore drive to restore and archive classic Indian films, which were otherwise going out of print. NFDC will restore 75 titles by March 2012, but can launch home videos of only those films for which it owns copyright.



"We are optimistic about bringing out DVDs and Blu-ray discs of some of our restored films," managing director Nina Lath Gupta said.



These include Ray's Ghare- Baire, Ganashatru, Jalsaghar, Aparajito and his last film Agantuk, besides 15 well-known classics such as Mirch Masala and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro. Most of them were produced by NFDC.



Another NFDC official said the corporation will float a tender by March, inviting companies to bid for launching DVDs and Blu-ray discs of these 20 titles. He asked not to be named as he is not authorized to speak to the media. For five months, Cameo Digital has been engaged in special audio restoration of these films. "With consumers having better deliverable platforms, and high-definition becoming the buzzword in entertainment, it is important for the picture and the sound to be matched and restored to the best technological level," said Purab Gurjar, chief executive of Cameo Digital. "Blu-ray is the future format of home entertainment, and it will be a welcome move to have film director Satyajit Ray's movies in this format. We will be happy to partner on any such move," said G Dhananjayan, chief executive of home entertainment business for disc-maker Moser Baer India Ltd.



Some of Ray's other films are available in the market as their rights are held by companies such as Eagle Home Entertainment Pvt. Ltd and Ultra Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.



The National Film Archive of India, or NFAI, is also participating. "Since we are not copyright holders for films and just an archival body, we cannot sell DVDs of any of the restored films commercially," said Vijay H. Jadhav, NFAI's director.



But the agency does screen the restored movies.



"Last month, we screened three of Mrinal Sen's films on Blu-ray at a film festival in Mumbai," Jadhav said.



Reliance MediaWorks Ltd has restored 175 films for NFAI and expects to restore another 1,000.



It makes four-five Blu-ray discs and provides them to NFAI along with a restored master copy of the film.



"The idea of restoring content is to allow it to get adjusted to technology, whether it's standard DVDs or high-definition Blu-ray," said Hemen Doshi, chief operating officer of Digital Media Imaging, the media outsourcing arm of Reliance MediaWorks.



From 22 November to 2 December, five of NFAI's restored films will be screened in Goa at the 41st International Film Festival of India.



The oldest among these is Marthanda Varma, a 1931 silent film in Malayalam.



"We want audiences to experience these iconic films through the best technological platform," Jadhav said.



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