A restored 4K version of Bimal Roy’s 1953 award-winning film Do Bigha Zamin will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival 2025, a development that has been hailed as a moment of great pride by the late filmmaker’s son and those close to the core team that worked behind the camera.
The Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) made the announcement on Friday to mark the director’s 116th birth anniversary.
“The film was in bad shape. Restoration at this level, funded by Criterion, is something we could not have managed on our own,” Roy’s son Joy Bimal Roy told The Telegraph Online.
“It’s been restored frame by frame — not just digitised… This opens the possibility of theatrical screenings in the US, UK, Australia and other parts of the world,” he added.
The film, starring Balraj Sahni, Nirupa Roy, Ratan Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nana Palshikar, and Mehmood, underwent a meticulous restoration process by FHF.
The process, which was carried out by the organisation in collaboration with Criterion and Janus Films, took three years to complete, said FHF director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
Based on Rabindranath Tagore’s poem Dui Bigha Jomi and Salil Chowdhury’s short story Rickshawalla, the film revolves around Shambu, a poor farmer and his family. In the hope of earning enough money to pay off his debts and save his land, Shambhu becomes a rickshaw puller in Calcutta and faces many difficulties.
Even today, the story of Shambhu Mahto (protagonist of Do Bigha Zamin) — a poor farmer who was forced to migrate to the city to save his land — resonates with the audience.
“Land grabs, migration, industrialisation, exploitation — these issues haven’t disappeared. They’ve only changed form,” said Joy.
Film journalist and critic Ratnottama Sengupta, daughter of author and screenwriter Nabendu Ghosh, who worked closely with Bimal Roy during the making of the film, echoed the sentiment.
“Watching it again on the big screen, in such pristine form, is a glorious experience — not just for the families involved but for the cinema lovers everywhere,” she said.
Ghosh also played a cameo alongside actor Mehmood in the film. “He played a kulfiwala who, along with Mehmood’s character, was trying to woo the same girl,” Sengupta said. “That comic relief was necessary — because at its core, Do Bigha Zamin is a tragic story of loss, displacement, and injustice.”
She also shared anecdotes about the filmmaker’s passion for bringing realism on screen, be it the costume choices or Balraj Sahni’s method of acting. “Once, he (Sahni) returned from a shoot dressed as a rickshaw puller and the hotel guard wouldn’t let him in,” she said. “That’s how real it was.”
Her statement was seconded by Bimal Roy’s daughter Aparajita Sinha, who believed that Balraj Sahni’s ‘phenomenal performance’, brought out the genuineness of the film. He stayed with Rickshaw pullers of Calcutta to learn about their lifestyle.
Sinha confirmed that three other films by Bimal Roy — Devdas (1955), Madhumati (1958) and Bandini (1963) are also set to be restored.
Poet and filmmaker Gulzar, who worked as Roy’s chief assistant during the 1961 film Kabuliwala, congratulated Film Heritage Foundation and Dungarpur, calling the feat “amazing” and “historic.”
Do Bigha Zamin was the second Indian film to bag an award at the Cannes Film Festival after Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar (1946). At the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, Do Bigha Zamin won the Prix International award.
