Dungarpur: I'll discuss the heritage of each of our 10 Indian film industries

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

'So, Baahubali was not made in India?' The question addressed to cinema preservationist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur from filmmakers on international turf caught him off-guard. Asserting that the world needed to be aware of the industries that comprise Indian cinema, Dungarpur tells mid-day that the topic will make for a prominent part of his presentation at the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences.

Dungarpur, founder of the Film Heritage Foundation, has been invited by the Academy for an eight-hour-long session, which will be held in Los Angeles on July 14. The three-part session will comprise a discussion on the importance of preserving and restoring motion pictures, followed by one on India's film heritage, and will conclude with a screening of Dungarpur's Celluloid Man.

"One of the key things that my presentation will entail will be how varied Indian cinema is. Indian cinema doesn't only [consist of] Bollywood. I had to tell them that Baahubali was made in India, but not in Bollywood. Indian cinema is not only about Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. We also have a Rajinikanth. We have 10 big film industries. I will discuss the heritage of each of them, apart from how India has become a global market," he says, pointing out that last year, India has censored as many as 11,000 films.

He laments that while the world has addressed the need for preservation, India has yet to turn its focus towards it. "We lost 80 per cent of our heritage because producers never preserved them. Unless a film made money, producers weren't willing [to spend on preservation]."

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