Joy Roy (top) and a moment from Bimal Roy’s Devdas

It was at such a juncture that film-maker and writer Nasreen Munni Kabir suggested that Joy interview people directly or indirectly influenced by Bimal Roy and made a documentary out of it. “I was very apprehensive because firstly he is such a legendary figure and then he is also my father,” says Joy.

But after a lot of contemplation, Joy took up the challenge and went about talking to people who had a special connection with Bimal Roy. “I used two ready interviews by Nasreen — one was of my mother and another of Dilip Kumar. Then I spoke to Gulzar, who started his career with my father. I spoke to Javed Akhtar, who had watched his films as a child and then gone on to become such an important figure in Indian cinema. Other people I interviewed included Kamini Kaushal, Dharmendra, Nabendu Ghosh, Dilip Sircar, Bharati Devi and Vyjayanthimala. Of the current crop of directors, I spoke to Ashutosh Gowariker.”

It wasn’t easy to string together the interviews and finish Remembering Bimal Roy. “It became an exercise in editing,” Joy laughs. “I didn’t want to bore anybody but at the same time I didn’t want to leave out the interesting insights into the man and director that my father was. One thing I was very clear was that I didn’t want a voiceover to tell the story. So the linking became a bit difficult. But finally it all came together.”

While he was “very happy” to be part of the Bimal Roy retrospective at Nandan, Joy felt that not enough has been done to salute the man who made films like Do Bigha Zameen, Sujata and Yahudi. “After his death my father has not really got his due,” Joy says, the emotion palpable in his voice. “His cinema was very tastefully done within the fabric of mainstream cinema. He used songs and dances in his films and he reached out to a broad spectrum of people. While his films were very popular in India, they didn’t make it to festivals abroad.”

And then, Joy feels, everyone forgot about Bimal Roy when Bollywood went technicolour. “The films became flamboyant and outrageous and the format completely changed. It was obvious that young people chose not to go back to the black-and-white films but watched colour films instead. So my father’s films and his work died a natural death.”

But, adds Joy, the name Bimal Roy still spells goodwill in the industry. “He made it to the annals of history of cinema,” he says. “It is now that I find a new interest in the West about his work. So retrospectives and festivals are a lovely way of jogging people’s memories. After all, seeing the films on the large screen is so very different than watching it on TV or DVD.”

Now, Joy and his sister (Aparajita Sinha) are trying to release the last film their father wanted to make — Amrita Kumbher Sandhane. And that’s not all. After this long, long wait Joy is planning to make his first fiction film. “It’s not that I never thought of it before because I have assisted Shyam Benegal on three films,” he says. “But now I feel I am ready to make films. It’s a little late in life but the documentary has given me the confidence to go ahead. Yes, it was the fear of comparisons with my father that stopped me from making my film. But now I know I can never make films like him and I would rather make something I believe in.”