This post does not talk of the latest releases such as "Fanaa", "Corporate", etc. which by and large tend to be of high quality somewhat akin to Hollywood standards, but of the older releases especially those of films from the 70's and 80's.

As a film buff, my love of film extends to those from all over the world, but primarily Hollywood, Europe, South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. As an Indian I also love Hindi films, especially those I saw as a child in the 70's and later thru the 80's. I despair at the state of the back catalogue of Hindi films. When compared to the love and care given by studios, producers and, in some cases governments, to Hollywood classics not only from the 60's and 70's, but also from the 30's, 40's and 50's, we ought to be ashamed that we have allowed the bulk of our film heritage to simply rot and fade away. Even at the consumer end, I cannot find more than a few examples of dvds that can be described even just satisfactory.

Just look at how the likes of "Casablanca", "The Maltese Falcon", and "The Asphalt Jungle", have been restored on film and then released on dvd at the best possible quality. These films look better now then they did when they were first released. I could give thousands of such examples and what is clear is this - we do not care enough about our film heritage. Why do Indian producers and studios not restore the best of their back catalogue and then release these to the consumer end? I know of hundreds of titles I would buy, if only they were in the correct ratio, good audio and visual quality and supported by good quality media and packaging. It isn't enough to blame the likes of Eros, WEG, BEI, etc as they are only partly to blame. They often have shitty prints to work with and as a result this rolls down to the consumer! It is high time the filmmakers themselves took charge. Can you imagine what "Sholay", "Amar, Akbar, Anthony", "Naseeb", "Coolie", "Suhaag", "Roti", etc, etc, would look like if they were restored like the Hollywood titles I have mentioned above?

Perhaps we as fans and collector's should also take charge by demanding that we only want to buy good quality end dvds. I would be happy to pay loads more for a film that looked the best it ever did! For the companies like BEI, EROS and WEG there is money to be made on releasing titles in the best possible shape for I and many others would happily replace all our current hindi collections for ones that have been restored and have value added such as special features, good commentaries, etc. It would be wonderful to have Rajesh Khanna talk of "Aradhana" and Amitabh on "AAA", telling us of what the industry was like then and their experiences on the various films and their views on director's, and fellow actors of the era.

For my part, I am willing to do something about the problem and I have some ideas as to how we could influence producers and distrbutors. It would be a long hard road, but it would be worth it, wouldn't it? Are there others willing to join me?

Yeah, I am.

Welcome to the suck

Biggest problem you'll face from anyone you contact is getting them to admit that their products are in comparison inferior. I remember having email conversations with Video Sound years ago and try them to change the way they made their DVDs, their response was “they appreciated, Hollywood quality DVDs but according to their customer feedback their DVDs were just as satisfactory and comparable in quality”. Second line of defence they take is to blame piracy as a cause of poor quality DVDs – of course they were doing this before DVD as medium matured and do this to this day. You’ll find the blame game played a lot as it nearly always someone else fault the DVDs are of poor quality.

You idea of going direct to producers and directors to take responsibility and care of their work might be good one but I still reckon you’ll only find a handful of people that will do this (and can be argued are doing this anyway) and rest will carry on using ‘the most cost effective, screw quality’ method to put movies on DVD. Especially when you consider the majority of the movies themselves are ‘inspirations’ of other movies (read poor copies, hence I find the piracy argument so hypocritical).

Anyway enough of the depressing talks; your post at least gives some hope, so inspire us then. I’m willing to help out anyway I can.

Ali

As a film buff, having films restored along with commentaries would be a collectors dream. But I believe that it is piracy that is the biggest factor for poor quality DVD's. Distributors have to release these films on DVD more quickly then Hollywood to fight piracy. So the time and effort is not there, thus poor quality.

I also believe that the majority of Hindi Film viewers would not pay extra for a DVD with commontary as they would only be interested in the movie itself. So I don't think that there would be much profits from it.

It is sad that many of the film reels are in poor shape, & would take alot of $$ & time to restore. I hope that the restoration of Mughal-e-Azam creates a similar wave of restorations, minus the colour. But I don't think any of this will happen anytime soon.

Gujjubhai, they may not appreciate the commentary but surely the would appreciate the excellent quality of the audio and visuals in the correct ratio, seeing the film as it was meant to be seen. Or are you telling me that the film buff or knowledgeable consumer is happy to purchase the pirated or cheaply produced dvds. I have never ever purchased anything other than what is an official release of hindi films and yet it is this authentic product that is so poor. Perhaps purchasers feel that they might as well buy the pirated stuff as it makes little difference to their viewing?

I am not talking or restoring everything out there but only a select few as it would be prohibitive financially to do otherwise. I suggest that we could start with a target list of say fifty out of which we might be able to access ten films for ultimate restoration. It will not be easy and I can't imagine it would be given the attitude of " ‘the most cost effective, screw quality’ " as suggested by Ali. However, as film buffs perhaps we ought to try and I myself have already started. I am currently researching the most cost effective methods of restoration that allow restoration to a high standard. We need to turn the restoration and the ultimate product into a money making proposition for the owners of the negatives for this to succeed.

I have found the members of Zulm.net to be the most passionate thus far as far as hindi films are concerned and if say ten of us could find the time to try and make this project a possibility, who knows? It may well turn out that what I hope is not at all possible and that we have to accept the inevitable but we should at least try.

I am convinced that films like "Sholay", "Amar, Akbar Anthony", "Pyaasa" (1957), "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959) and "Mother India" have universal appeal and would be watched by many non-Indians as well.

I agree that the select few Hindi Film titles mentioned should be made into collectors edition style DVD. I wonder which DVD distributor would experiment with that, & to which film.

So far only Ali has offered to help in my quest to get a few titles restored and to eventually get better quality dvds of these titles. I mentioned in an earlier post that if we could get, say, 10 people involved, we could try and make this wishful thinking on my part possible. Is this lack of response just a reflection of a lack of interest or perhaps a "makes no difference to me attitude". Or is it cynicism formed after so many disappointments in the past?

I am sincere about what I think we could do and I have an idea or two but I cannot do it alone. Please respond if you can.

But, how can we help ?? where and how do we start ?? You can count me 'IN', among 10 people you asked for.

So far, a few of us have gone to great lengths on hunt for rare & good quality Indian DVDs but never ventured into producing DVDs, except for Kits who took bull by the horn and produced a few top quality i-dream DVDs. Looks like, even he gave up after a while for financial considerations and lack of sales.

There will be two HD disks of 2 important Bollywood films in the next 6 months. Quality will be good. More in time...

Ali, Anwar, Rana, Gujjubhai and anyone else. I will post a suggestion here on Wednesday with regard to my earlier posts. I am waiting for some costings with regard to wet gate restoration and I am sure I shall have this info by mid-week. In the interim, perhaps those interested in helping can all agree to, say, twenty titles that we ought to look at as possible candidates. Perhaps out of this lot only 5 will be viable at the end so choose wisely!

Here are some suggestions, there are soo many good movies that it is hard to choose.

Pyaasa (1951), Andaz (1949), Don (1978), Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Sholay (1975), & Namak Halaal (1982).

Count me in too if I can help in any way.

I second Gujjubhai's suggestions of Pyaasa, Andaz, Sholay and Kaagaz Ke Phool. I'd also recommend Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Teesri Manzil and Hey Ram since they're all in dire need of a good DVD release.

Count me in also ... films that I'd like - Pakeezah, Pukar (1936)

You'll also have to add the cost of licensing the film(s) from the original copyright holders

Inquire at Hometheaterforum.com about this. A lot of knowledgeable people post there.

My picks from that list are Pyaasa, KKP, and Guide.

Yes, but at this time I am just trying to figure out what the restoration costs are going to be for, say, a 3 hour film from the 70's assuming poor negatives and colour separations. We will have to make decisions as to how far to restore the films and this will be decided to a large extent by the level of financing raised and to a smaller extent by what we are willing to live with after restoration. IMO the assumption should always be that the restoration will be to the OAR if this was the Director's wish or to the AR the Director had hoped to exhibit the film in. However, I will detail the restoration model shortly as well as the value added aspects we should strive for. In addition, I will also suggest a business model for the project that is primarily designed to support future restoration and exhibition. If anyone wishes to suggest ideas that we should incorporate, please feel free to e-mail me directly or leave a reply to this forum.

My own choices for restoration are as follows:

"Sholay", "Amar, Akbar, Anthony", "Pyaasa" (1957), "Kaagaz Ke Phool" (1959), "Andaz" (1949), "Aandhi" (1975), "Lekin" (1990), "Naseeb" (1981), "Majboor" (1974), "Dushman" (1971).

I also like quite a few of Hrishikesh Mukerjee's films but perhaps may not be possible at this stage.