Making Sense of it All

Disability could never stop Dipendra Manocha, co-founder of Delhi-based NGO Saksham, from exploring ways to change the narrative.
Making Sense of it All

Disability could never stop Dipendra Manocha, co-founder of Delhi-based NGO Saksham, from exploring ways to change the narrative. Blind since childhood, he understood early on the significance of technology in enabling physically disadvantaged people to live without sensory deprivations. This awareness pushed him to develop a communication and training infrastructure that allows the blind to function independently in mainstream society. But Dipendra wanted to go to the next level.

Together with film and TV personality Sushma Seth, scriptwriter and voice-over artist Narendra Joshi and Saksham co-founder Rummi K Seth, he launched into a novel genre; making films accessible to people who are blind and deaf. “I decided the time had come to make movies an enjoyable experience for people who cannot see,” says Dipendra. 

Adds Rummi, “Persons with vision and hearing problem also have the right to watch films. Our initiative allows them to watch movies like other people.” When the road to redemption is paved with good intentions, irony is transformed into reason. The team chose Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Helen Keller-inspired Black, a film whose protagonist is deaf, blind and mute, as their first project. 

“Mr Bhansali was very forthcoming and the project was a breeze. But after that came a lull. It took time to convince production houses that our project is really important.  By now, we have successfully audio-described 28 movies,” says Dipendra.

Schoolchildren enjoying film Sholay in Delhi
Schoolchildren enjoying film Sholay in Delhi

The rewards justified the effort for Saksham. Three of their films were screened at the International Children’s Film Festival in Hyderabad, in 2006. Dipendra explained the blind children felt liberated by no longer having to ask the people around what was happening on screen. “Whenever we screen films in India, we are motivated further by the overwhelming response,” adds Dipendra.

Saksham films come with an audio-described version for the blind and subtitles and a sign-language interpreter on-stage for the deaf. Audio description is the additional narration which translates images and other visual informationand non-dialoguee portions of the films into spoken words so that blind viewers can enjoy and understand the sequences that have a natural pause. 

They use technology to pause the original track and insert audio descriptions between dialogues. When combined with subtitles, it enhances the enjoyment of blind or deaf persons to experience and connect with the film the same others do.

“After days of hard work with countless discussions and multiple voice-over recording sessions to get Black just right, we were elated to see the excitement and happiness on the faces of our viewers. It was a treat to observe them losing themselves in the various moods and episodes of the movie,” says Narendra. 

But not all their films have been so smooth-sailing.

It was tough audio-describing Barfi, which had little dialogue. They struggled with Margarita with a Straw, that explored the relationship between a teenager with cerebral palsy and a blind actress. They plan to hold a audio-described film festival. Dipendra’s next project is Andhadhun, besides a Kannada and a Bengali film .As Team Saksham moves forward with similar projects, they are betting on generating awareness in the industry to make films tht are inclusive and compassionate. 

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com