The award winning documentary “Celluloid Man”, based on the life of film archivist and founder of National Film Archive of India (NFAI) P K Nair, was screened for a week in Kochi but attracted only a sparse audience.
The documentary was well received elsewhere in India and abroad, but failed to evoke the same interest in his home state of Kerala.
The screening of the documentary at PVR cinemas, as part of Indian cinema’s 100th anniversary, was the worst in terms of participation, said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, director of the documentary.
The documentary was critically acclaimed and much appreciated in film festivals including Rotterdam film festival, New York film festival and Fiji film festival.
The documentary won two National awards recently, and was released by PVR Cinemas in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune as well.
The subject, P K Nair, was instrumental in collecting over 12000 films single-handedly for NFAI.
“Malayalees are supposed to be passionate about films. But the kind of reception we got in Kochi deeply disappointed me”, Shivendra told Express. He claimed that the documentary ran to a full house in all other cities.
“In cities like Bangalore, an average of 100 people watched the show per day. In Kochi, just 45-50 people attended the screening in the past five days”, he said.
When asked for the reason behind such a poor reception he blamed PVR Cinemas, because “there was no sufficient publicity for the film”.
PVR Cinemas in Kochi also admitted that the promotion of the film could have been done better. “The documentary was not promoted as much as the other blockbuster films are usually promoted,” said Uday Nazare, Cinema Manager at Kochi PVR.
Hiran Venugopalan, a film enthusiast in Kochi, echoed the view that the documentary did not quite get the attention it truly deserved.
“I appreciate PVR’s initiative to screen the documentary film but it could have been promoted better. If well received, it would have been an honour to P K Nair,” Hiran said.