Time to say goodbye: Producer of 3 Satyajit Ray classics agrees to sell them to US distribution company
Satyajit Ray classics will be bought by Janus Films, a popular US film distribution company. In an interview with the Times Of India, Arijit Dutta, the heir of the family who produced three Ray masterpieces, ‘Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne’, ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’ and ‘Pratidwandi’, said that he was considering selling the movies as it is getting difficult to preserve the negatives and was tired of multiple times the movies were screened without any recognition or compensation/royalty. Describing the decision to sell the classics as “very sentimental,” Dutta toldTOI, that the negatives were kept in air-conditioned rooms 24X7.
Earlier, the negatives were kept at Bombay Laboratories. After it shut down, I picked up the negatives in 1990..” He also revealed that the last coloured reel of ‘Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne’ was in colour and got lost. However as they had a master positive, it was restored.
Aside from the financial burden of preserving the reels, Dutta also complained about the sheer lack of acknowledgment. A 4K version of ‘Pratidwandi’ was selected as part of the Cannes Classics. But despite being the producers, Dutta and his family were not invited to the festival.
“So many people not related to the film went to Cannes. But we were not even acknowledged,” rued Dutta. Based in the US, Janus is a film distribution company dedicated to promoting indie & art-house movies of various nations to the US audience.
It has preserved works of masters such as Sergei Eisenstein, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini etc. One of the most endearing and enduring children’s films of all time, ‘Goopy Gyne, Bagha Byne’ was released in theatres on May 8, 1969. It was one of the most commercially successful films directed by Ray.
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