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Friday 20 January 2012

Ray's 'Sikkim' DVDs to hit markets soon

Priyanka Dasgupta, TNN | Jan 18, 2012, 04.14AM IST

KOLKATA: Your wait to watch Satyajit Ray's 1971 documentary titled "Sikkim" will get over within a few days. Come Thursday and Angel Video will come up with DVDs and VCDs of the Ray documentary that was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India.

"Six months back, we got in touch with the Art and Culture Trust of Sikkim to procure the rights of the documentary. We have been chasing the authorities for the past one and a half years to transfer the rights. Initially, they weren't sure if they should part with the rights. Finally, we told that holding back the rights is only denying people the opportunity to see a cult work. They were finally convinced when we told them that we had the rights of 11 famous Ray movies, including "Pather Panchali", "Hirak Rajar Deshe" and "Sonar Kella", among others," said Akash Tantiya, director (sales & marketing), Angel Video.

Tantiya, however, was reluctant to reveal the amount the company had to shell out to procure the rights. "The market price is high for any Ray film. But we were willing to pay the amount. The Trust took the print from the British company and gave handed it over to us," he said.

Meanwhile, Sandip Ray is happy with the news of the launch. "The original negative couldn't be traced. It's with the queen of Sikkim, Hope Cook. She is now in America and is quite a recluse. "Sikkim" was her baby. The Chogyals were a great fan of Baba and we tried hard to track down Cook to retrieve the negatives. We got in touch with a company called Gemini. People out there checked the logbook and told us that the negatives should be with her. Despite writing to her on a number of occasions, she didn't respond. Fortunately, a London distributor of Baba's movies - Contemporary Films - had a print. I'm told even Brown University has a print.

Though I've not seen this print, I suppose it is quite good and in viewable condition. In 2003, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science had done a basic chemical restoration of the documentary and it was subsequently screened at a festival in France in 2008 during a Ray Retrospective. The last time we spoke to the Academy authorities, we were told that they would want to digitally restore both "Kanchenjunga" and "Sikkim" properly. That's yet to be done and also involves a lot of money. Even today, no negatives of "Kanchenjunga" are available," Ray said. Tantiya, however, claimed, "The print of "Sikkim" that we have has been digitally restored and is in excellent condition."

Meanwhile, Ray still doesn't know why the screening of "Sikkim" was stopped at the 2010 Kolkata Film Festival. "I wasn't in town then and the abrupt stalling of the screening is still a mystery for me," he said. But all that is past and he is now looking forward to the launch function at Nandan that will also be graced by Goutam Ghose, among others.It's time to rejoice for those who always wished but never got a chance to watch Satyajit Ray's 1971 documentary titled "Sikkim". Come Thursday and Angel Video is coming up with DVDs and VCDs of the Ray documentary that was commissioned by the Chogyal (King) of Sikkim at a time when he felt the sovereignty of Sikkim was under threat from both China and India.

Says Akash Tantiya, director, sales and marketting, Angel Video, "Six months back, we got in touch with the Art and Culture Trust of Sikkim to procure the rights of the documentary. We have been chasing the authorities for the past one-and-a-half years to transfer the rights.

Initially, they weren't sure that they wanted to part with the rights or not. Finally, we told that not parting with the rights is only denying people the opportunity to see a cult work. We told them that we had the rights of 11 famous Ray movies, including "Pather Panchali", "Hirak Rajar Deshe", "Sonar Kella" and "Kanchenjungha", among others. That convinced them."

Tantiya, however, is reluctant to reveal how much the company had to shell out to procure the rights. "The market price is high for any Ray film. But, we were willing to pay the amount. Art and Culture Trust of Sikkim took the print from the British company gave that to us for our DVD and VCD making purposes," he says.

Meanwhile, Sandip Ray is happy with the news of the launch. "The original negative can't be traced. It's with the queen of Sikkim, Hope Cook. She is now in America and is quite a recluse. "Sikkim" was her baby. The Chogyals were a great fan of Baba and we tried hard to track down Cook to retrieve the negatives. We got in touch with a company called Gemini. The people out there checked the logbook and told us that the negatives should be with her. Despite writing to her on a number of occasions, she didn't respond. Fortunately, there was a London distributor of Baba's movies called Contemporary Films. This company had a print. I'm told even Brown University has a print.

Though I've not seen this print, I suppose, it is quite good and in viewable condition. In 2003, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science had done a basic chemical restoration of the documentary and it was subsequently screened at a festival in France in 2008 during a Ray Retrospective. The last time we spoke to the Academy authorities, we were told that they would want to digitally restore both "Kanchenjunga" and "Sikkim" properly. That's yet to be done and also involves a lot of money. Even today, no negatives of "Kanchenjunga" are available." Tantiya, however, claims, "The print of "Sikkim" that we have has been digitally restored and is in excellent condition."

Meanwhile, Ray still doesn't know why the screening of "Sikkim" was stopped at the 2010 Kolkata Film Festival. "I wasn't in town then and the abrupt stalling of the screening is still a mystery for me," he says. But all that is past and he is now looking forward to launch function at Nandan that will also be graced by Goutam Ghose, among others.

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