Capture a slice of the filmy life

If you fancy owning late actor Shammi Kapoor’s scarf that he wore in the movie Junglee Osian’s Cinefan Auction of Indian Cinema Memorabilia is the place to be at the end of this month. Delhi plays host to a new annual auction dedicated to film memorabilia.

Fancy owning late actor Shammi Kapoor’s scarf that he wore in the movie Junglee or a turquoise ring set worn by actor Farooque Shaikh in the movie Umrao Jaan? Then, Osian’s Cinefan Auction of Indian Cinema Memorabilia is the place to be at the end of this month.

This auction, dedicated to film memorabilia, will be a part of the upcoming Osian Cinefan Film Festival, which will also take place this month. “In 2002, Osian’s began its film archive and collection building process, so as to develop the educational and knowledge base for the subject and its relationship with the other arts,” says Neville Tuli, Founder Chairman of the festival.

Their cinema archive now houses over 160,000 artworks, consisting of not only Hindi cinema, but also Hollywood, European, Asian and World cinema. Artistic props, costumes, lobby cards, film posters, among other things, are all a part of this auction.

The main attraction this year will be legendary Bollywood star Shammi Kapoor who passed away last year. The items used by him in various films such as his sweater from the film, Andaz (1971) and the Shehnai he played in Rockstar (2011) will be auctioned.
Some of the other pieces that will be auctioned include 45 black and white photographic stills signed by actor Dev Anand, a cricket bat signed by actor Amir Khan and his team from the film, Lagaan, and costumes worn by actors Sanjeev Kumar and Amjad Khan in the movie, Shatranj ke Khiladi.

“These articles of auction were sourced from many private collections around the country such as the private family collection of Shammi Kapoor, collections of eminent film-makers such as Suresh Jindal, M.S. Sathyu, Rakesh Kumar, among others. We also got them from a large number of dealers in film memorabilia, who were quite few a decade back when the art market had started to grow,” says Tuli.

The preview exhibition of the auction will take place between July 27 - 30 at the Siri Fort Complex. Those interested in becoming a buyer at the July 31 auction have to get themselves registered at Siri Fort during the preview.

Some of the items to be auctioned:

* Scarf and sweater worn by Shammi Kapoor in the films, Junglee and Andaz.
* A Cricket bat signed by Amir Khan and his team from the film, Lagaan.
* Turquoise ring set in silver worn by Farooque Sheikh in Muzaffar Ali’s film, Umrao Jaan.
* Film posters from 1960s designed by Satyajit Ray calendar art featuring stars such as Jayalalitha, Waheeda Rehman, Hema Malani, Mumtaz, Sridevi.
*Chance to purchase the rights of the last unreleased song of Kishore Kumar.