Ravi Chopra on a colouring spree

Filmmaker Ravi Chopra says he wants to colour all his father's black and white films for the modern day audience.

Ravi Chopra, director and son of legendary filmmaker BR Chopra, says he wants to colour all his father's black and white films for the modern day audience who might have missed out on the classics that have shaped the Hindi film industry.

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Chopra, 60, said he would first colour four films -- Naya Daur, Gumrah, Kanoon and Dhool Ka Phool. The Dilip Kumar-Vyajantimala starrer Naya Daur would be released on Oct 3 this year. And the other films would be taken up for colouring subsequently.

"Old films are being neglected but these films are classics and they deserve to be screened again," Chopra told IANS in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

"Adding a modern touch like colouring them is a must as it will pull the audience to watch these old films and I think they will also love seeing these beautiful movies in colour."

"Mostly youngsters go to theatres to watch movies but why will they like to watch a black and white film? They are missing out on films that have shaped Bollywood as it stands today. I want youngsters to know how our industry's past was."

Pigmenting is a recent Bollywood phenomenon. The trend started with the cult 1960 Dilip Kumar runaway romance Mughal-e-Azam becoming the first black and white movie to be coloured.

Now, a slew of movies, including Dev Anand's Hum Dono and Guru Dutt's Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, are set to be released in colour.

Though much hype was created before the release of Mughal-e-Azam, it failed to live up to expectations and received moderate success at the box-office. It was also panned by critics who disliked the choice of the colours.

But Chopra, also the director of the widely-popular TV series Mahabharat which ran over 94 episodes between 1988 and 1990, is prepared to take the risk and said he would take extra care while colouring the films.

"I feel the colour scheme used for Mughal-e-Azam was not handled properly," he said. "I will be extra cautious."

Chopra said he would be spending around Rs.35 million for colouring each film. He added that he was not aiming at earning money from the box-office as it a personal mission to bring his father's films back to the theatres with a fresh look.

"If I get back what I will invest, it will be enough for me," he said.

Chopra said there would be no editing on the original films and that the music would also be untouched. However, the sound, being mastered by music director Aadesh Srivastav, would be made digital to give it a modern feel.

Purists are unhappy with directors coming forward to colour the films and say it amounts to tampering with creative art.

"This is unethical and destructive," said Derek Bose, a Bollywood scholar. "People should respect the sanctity of someone's work. Changing something from the original film is unacceptable."

"If this was done after taking the consent of the person who had originally made the film, it would have been still acceptable but when those people are no longer alive, it is outrageous to change their work."