iNTERVIEW

Prasad Film Labs

Dev Benegal

Rahul Bose

Shyam Benegal

FilmmakerAfter his National Award-winning film English, August was damaged at, director and co-writeris trying to re-create a new archival digital negative.English, August, a landmark in contemporary Indian cinema, could well be lost to cinephiles. Dev Benegal’s 1994 directorial, which bagged the National Award for Best Feature Film in English and was feted internationally, is a fresh, irreverent take on bureaucracy and explored the effects of the English language barrier in our own country with tongue-in-cheek humour. It was the first indie film to break into Hindi mainstream cinema and made its unconventional leading man,, a familiar name, both at home and globally. The filmmaker talks about the tragedy and his restoration efforts.I wanted to make a digital version of the film. I called the lab for the original negative and they hesitantly revealed that it had been affected by water damage and was not in a good condition.There’s a bit of ironic history to this. Having seen the condition of the negatives of Satyajit Ray’s films when I was working on the two-hour documentary on him (directed by), I promised myself that I would never let that happen to my own film if and when I made one. So, when I did make English, August I made sure to take it to the best lab in India, which back then was Prasad Film Labs in Chennai. What I never imagined was that this would be the very place where the negative would get damaged.In my mind, the original negative was in the best lab in the country, safe and stored correctly. I should have checked continuously, spoken to them about storage conditions, but those were things one never knew back then and one learns in hindsight.We did not have a budget to make a dupe or an internegative. Also, the technology in India was very rudimentary and when you did make a duplicate, it led to a significant loss in the quality of the image.It’s really heart-breaking because the film has the work of one of the finest Director of Photography (DoP) in the country — Anoop Jotwani. Anoop was Subrata Mitra’s (Ray’s cameraman) blue-eyed protégé. In English, August his work was wonderful — the depth and tonality that he brought to the image, I haven’t seen elsewhere. That was combined with the extraordinary production design by Anuradha Parikh. The collaboration was magical.There’s a tiny sliver of hope. The Taiwan filmmaker, Edward Yang, who was on the jury of one of the festivals where English, August won an award, loved the film and asked the Taiwan Film Archives to buy a 35mm print. There is a low contrast print with the French television network La Sept-Arte that co-produced the film. I am planning to scan these digitally, frame-by-frame at 8K, and re-create a new archival digital negative. Then, make 35mm prints and also create elements for online streaming, DVD and whatever the new formats are.English, August was the first feature to have digital sound. Vikram Joglekar took an enormous leap to record sound in digital. I’ve made sure I’ve backed up the sound in every possible way. The sound design is also intact as is the music by D Wood and Joglekar.Yes, the real issue is the cost of restoration. It is much higher than what it costs to make the movie. So, that is a stumbling block. There are no organisations or funds I can access for support. I really have to fund it myself. I am hoping to do that in small steps.At the moment, no. Once the restoration is complete, it will be available on all platforms — digital and film projection included.India has a strange relationship with films. As people, we love them. As a state, we do everything to create hurdles for filmmaking. Absurd taxes, high import duties, censorship, the list is endless. For the longest time, we couldn’t take our own negative out of a lab due to some absurd Excise Rules. At every step, the state treats the film community like they are committing a crime.It’s a known fact that celluloid film is the best archival medium that exists. Properly stored, it can last for a very, very long time. Longer than the digital medium which is subject to the whims of manufacturers and the lack of any standards. I say this even though I have lost my film’s negative.I recently saw the restored versions of Wim Wenders’ films. He spoke about the German government fund to restore and digitise all their works of art. Everything. Now that’s something. I do feel strongly that the cinema and all our arts need state support for their preservation. This is more than a private enterprise initiative. It has to be something larger and all encompassing.