Bengaluru:
Legendary filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli’s restored version of Ghatashraddha will be presented in the Venice Classics section of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which runs from August 28 to September 7.
Speaking to PTI, Kasaravalli said that he is looking forward to see how relevant the audience finds the film today.
“This was made in 1977. I have changed a lot since ‘Ghatashraddha’ (The Ritual), so I am curious to know what the audience thinks about it now,” said the Bengaluru-based filmmaker, who has won 14 National Awards.
Kasaravalli said he was going to Venice for the festival.
“I’m also watching the film for the first time since it was restored by the Film Heritage Foundation. I don’t own fine prints of any of my films. The ones I have have had some wear. Dust and scratches affect the quality of the print, so I’m curious to see a restored version” , he added.
Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder-director of the Film Heritage Foundation, had collaborated with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project to restore ‘Ghatashraddha’. The restoration was done at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy, considered one of the best restoration laboratories in the world.
According to a press release of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, “Ghatashraddha” is in the classic section among the 18 films that were restored in the past year and will premiere at the festival.
“Perhaps the name of Girish Kasaravalli is not very well known in Italy, although he was one of the founders of the Parallel Cinema movement inspired by the principles of Italian neorealism. His debut film ‘Ghatashraddha’ earned him instant fame and three major awards in Indian cinema that year (1977), said the festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, in a note introducing the films and directors that will be shown in the classic section.
According to him, the director and screenwriter Renato De Maria is the president of the jury of film students, which – for the eleventh year – will award the Venice Classics prizes in the competitions of each of the best restored films and the best film documentaries.
The jury consists of 24 students, each recommended by film studies professors from different Italian universities, DAMS and Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, he added.
Venice Classics is a section that has presented a selection of the best restorations of film classics at the Venice Film Festival since 2012.