Old
B/W Hindi films to get colourful
Sandesh Prabhudesai
16 June 2003
It is just a matter of one more year and we will see the
then young and heart-throbbing Dilip Kumar singing Saathi
Haath Badhana in 'colour' Naya Daur, the major
'black and white' hit of 1957.
West Wing Studios, Inc., the US-based firm of Indian NRI,
has taken up the task to colour-convert at least nine such
famous black and white films of '50s and '60s, in Goa, to
begin with.
Following the decision to make Goa the permanent venue of
the international film festival in India, the US-based firm
has set up its shop in Goa, in association with B R Films,
headed by B R Chopra's son Ravi.
"Goa is the right place, having uninterrupted power
supply, best connectivity and conducive atmosphere",
says Vivek Rao, the chairperson and CEO of the West Wing Studios.
"I preferred Goa to Bangalore and Hyderabad for obvious
reasons", he adds.
Beginning with Naya Daur that would hit the silver
screen by June next year, Rao's 300-strong Indian technical
force would also take up conversion of Afsana (1951),
Ek Hi Rasta (1956), Sadhana (1958), Dhool
Ka Phool (1960), Kanoon (1961), Gumrah (1962),
Dharmputra and Teen Devian (both 1965).
Rao's unique firm has also taken up the works of US-based
Sony, nine films of 20th Century Fox and almost 24 films of
the American Television International for digital film restoration,
3D animation and digital media archiving.
As he could not get insurance bond in Bihar, Rao shifted
the Patna-based firm to Goa along with his 70-strong trained
personnel. He now plans to train the rest 220 by recruiting
the local work force. "It takes one year to train one
person", he states.
Rao purchased the patented digital colour remastering technology
that went bankrupt in the US and shifted to India by joining
hands with B R Films, besides his branches in Los Angeles,
Tuscon and Paris.
"The process is very slow and it takes eight hours for
one person to convert a shot of three seconds to convert in
colour", he explains. The whole exercise also costs around
USD 300,000 to 600,000 to convert the three-hour film.
Recalling the incident of Pune last year that destroyed valuable
films, Ravi Chopra appears quite happy that the new technology
would help restoring the degrading old films into the digital
colour format.
Following the business project, Rao also plans to shoot his
first Hollywood production, a low-budget film, by November
end. "The script is being written in the US and the work
to choose the cast would also begin shortly", he informs.
For chief minister Manohar Parrikar, this is just a beginning.
With Goa being selected the permanent venue for the international
film fete, all such ambitious projects would now shift to
Goa, he claims.
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