BENGALURU: Not even a single silent Kannada movie has been preserved and one cannot find find the oldest Kannada films even in museums, according to Indian filmmaker, producer, film archivist and restorer, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
Shivendra was in the city a few days ago for a talk on preserving and restoring Kannada films and interacted with the City Express. “In the Kannada film industry, some of notable works are lost. I don’t know how many films of Girish Karnad and Dr Rajkumar are missing,” he says.
He also highlighted how he collected cinema materials from the family of late cinematographer V K Murthy. “All works and camera material of VK Murthy is with us. I am a big fan of Murthy sir, specially his excellent camera work in Pyaasa, Kagaz Ke Phool,” he adds.
Film director Girish Kasarvalli has also shared all his work with Shivendra. “I have asked all my producers to find the negatives of my films and deposit them including song books and synopsis books to Shivendra and his Film heritage Foundation,” says Kasaravalli.
Shivendra emphasised that documentation of cinematic traditions is the need of the hour and a primary responsibility of a film industry. “India has produced 1,700 silent films but 90 per cent of it is lost. We have only preserved six of them. Even ‘Alam Ara’, the first Indian sound film hasn’t been preserved. It is such an important film and we don’t know where to find it,” says Shivendra.
Archiving and restoration is a painstaking job and highlighting the pains of the process, he highlights, “The usual practice to restore films in India is to do a digital scan and clean-up, while ignoring the repair and restoration of the original source material. Most film laboratories have shut down their photo chemical facilities that are essential for doing a quality restoration. We are in danger of losing the original camera negatives if they are not restored on an urgent basis.”
Kasaravalli adds that neither government or society can be blamed for it. “It’s the responsibility of the film fraternity. In India, a film is treated as a commodity. Once the film does its business, it loses its significance. This is one of the main reasons why we don’t have film negatives to preserve them,” he says.