GOLD COLLECTION: Legends being felicitated at a ceremony

Here’s good news for film buffs. Amitabh Bachchan and R. Balki are coming together to make a 15-minute film on Indian cinema. Filmmakers have joined hands to produce 40-minute documentaries on every director who has ever made a film for the Indian film industry. Actor Riteish Deshmukh is busy taking hand impressions of members of the film fraternity for his upcoming museum, Legends Walk, India’s answer to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. And if all goes well, the Bachchans, Khans, Kapoors and even the item girls of Bollywood will perform on Rajpath in central Delhi on January 26 next year.

It’s raining cinema — and there’s good reason why it should.

Indian cinema turns 100 in 2013. “And the entire film fraternity wants to celebrate this with pomp and ceremony,” says Ashok Pandit, senior vice-president, Indian Film & Television Directors Association (IFTDA), an independent body which has major plans to mark the occasion. “All the who’s who of the industry’s directors have come together for this,” adds filmmaker Sudhir Mishra.

The celebrations have already begun. Earlier this year, the Chevrolet Apsara Awards had a special segment dedicated to the legends of Indian cinema. Literature and Cinema was the theme at the 20th World Book Fair, which concluded in New Delhi recently. Now, from June, the IFTDA’s events — to be marked in an episodic manner — will get rolling, and wrap up by May 2013, when Indian cinema is believed to have first made its mark. It was on May 3, 1913, that Raja Harishchandra by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke — better known as Dadasaheb Phalke — was screened.

Apart from hosting seminars, interactions with regional filmmakers and highlighting their contribution, the IFTDA will set up a digital archive for film directors — accessible to aspiring filmmakers and film lovers. The ministry of information and broadcasting has grand designs too: it hopes to get the top Bollywood stars to perform on Republic Day and wants to set up a film museum in Mumbai by 2013. “The museum will exhibit costumes, scripts, set designs, monographs and film magazines,” says film historian Rafique Baghdadi. The ministry is also digitising and restoring landmark films and plans to webcast feature films and documentaries made in the last 60 years. The films can also be purchased online.

It’s been quite a journey for Indian cinema. When Bengal’s Hiralal Sen and Mumbai’s Phalke began shooting motion pictures, they were laughed at. But Sen continued to shoot stage programmes under the banner of Urban Bioscope, while Phalke scripted, directed, edited and acted for the epochal film Raja Harishchandra. And in doing so, they successfully laid the foundation of Indian cinema.

It’s not just the film fraternity that’s celebrating cinema’s centenary. Leading publishing houses too are keen on paying tribute to the industry. “We have a couple of exciting projects lined up,” says Udayan Mitra, publisher, Allen Lane and Portfolio, Penguin Books India. “These include a pictorial book on 100 years of Indian cinema, a new edition of the classic coffee-table book on the making of Sholay by Anupama Chopra, and the definitive biography of one of the biggest superstars, Rajinikanth.” Penguin has already scheduled a special session — Mind it! Indian Cinema Turns 100 — for an ongoing literary festival called Spring Fever 2012.

Cinema also figures prominently in the new publications of Om Books International. “The celebrations of 100 years of Indian cinema are already afoot,” says Ajay Mago, publisher, Om Books International. Among the books released are A.R. Rahman: The Spirit of Music and The Dialogue of Devdas: Bimal Roy’s Immortal Classic by documentary filmmaker and film historian Nasreen Munni Kabir. On the anvil are I’ll Do it My Way: The Incredible Journey of Aamir Khan by Christina Daniels and the screenplay of Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam. Other screenplays that will hit the market in the near future are those of Kaagaz ke Phool, Chaudhvin Ka Chand and Rang de Basanti.

Biographies will soon flood the market as well. On Om Books International’s list are a pictorial tribute to the Bachchans, an authorised biography of Shammi Kapoor by Rauf Ahmed and of Mohammed Rafi by his son Shahid and Sujata Dev. Other books include Love and Passion in Hindi Cinema by Firoze Rangoonwala, The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema and Housefull (a record of the oldest cinema halls in Delhi), both by journalist Ziya Us Salam, and Chopra’s Freeze Frames.

Apart from books, film festivals will be held across the country with the centenary as its theme. The 5th Jaipur International Film Festival will be held next January and will be preceded by festivals across Rajasthan. Film institutes are finalising plans to mark the year, and the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, is going to dedicate its in-house journal to the centenary.

Jadavpur University’s department of film studies has decided to mark the year by initiating more research into Indian cinema. “We have applied for grants for research and digital archiving of contents related to the history of Indian cinema,” stresses Moinak Biswas, associate professor, department of film studies. An international conference will be held and plans are afoot to convert a study done in collaboration with film historian Ravi Vasudevan into a book.

However, cinema can’t be without its share of controversy. Not everybody is happy at the turn the festivities are taking. “This is just a way of felicitating Phalke and not cinema,” complains film historian Gayatri Chatterjee. “For years we have been campaigning that Hiralal Sen be called the father of Indian Cinema. If they need to celebrate cinema they should do it the right way. Pundalik, a 12-minute silent film, was directed by Ramchandra Gopal Torney, N.G. Chitre and P.R. Tipnis in 1912,” says Chatterjee. Sen made his first film in 1898 by capturing scenes from the play The Flower of Persia.

But controversies apart, there is celebration in the air. And the countdown has begun.