To mark the centenary of silent era film 'Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra', film maker Goutam Ghosh and Bengali superstar Prosenjit Chatterjee today launched a campaign to chronicle the journey of Bengali cinema.
'Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra' was directed by Rustomji Dhotiwala and was the first feature film screened in a tent at Kolkata Maidan on March 24, 1917. The intertitles in the film were in Bengali as the film was a silent era film.
Interestingly a silent film 'Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra' with Marathi intertitles directed by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke was also screened in Mumbai in the same year.
Chatterjee told PTI after the launch of the campaign 'Bangla Cinema 100 - The Mission' that it was hopeful about getting the stills if not the footage of the century-old film.
"We will gather every historical reference spread all around us. Stills of many of the films are no more available, including important ones of the '60s and '70s. Many films of matinee idol Uttam Kumar cannot be traced any more," he said adding the 'Bangla Cinema 100' will chronicle all that for documentation.
To a question, Chatterjee said all the leading names of Bengali film industry, academicians, film historians are also being involved in the platform.
Ghosh said, "We are starting with 'Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra'. Negatives of many of our best films have been damaged irrevocably since then. We will do everything to make Bangla Cinema 100 an authoritative source recording Bengali film's journey in all those years," he said."
Prominent Bengali film personality Ranjit Mullick said the Bengali film audience shrunk after the partition in 1947.
The website banglacinema100.com was also launched and would be available on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for reaching out to the younger generation.
"We will also be holding film festivals, film fairs, exhibitions, workshops and go for global tie-ups and collaborations as part of the campaign," Chatterjee said.
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