I wish I was exposed to world cinema earlier

Subhash Ghai (pictured left), who churned out hits like "Saudagar" and "Ram Lakhan", regrets that when he started directing movies in mid-'70s, he had no access to the world cinema to study the works of filmmakers from other parts of the world.

"The few international movies that I could see was when I was doing a diploma course in acting at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. So, when I took to direction, I had no option but to observe how the filmmakers before had made movies in Bollywood and learn the ropes of filmmaking," Ghai said.

He was speaking at the launch of Shemaroo Entertainment's world cine label in Mumbai. Ghai feels that the initiative would be of great help to the new breed of filmmakers.

"Watching the DVDs of world classics made by the masters of cinema, I'm sure, would help them to raise the benchmark of filmmaking in India," Ghai said.

His film training institute Whistling Woods International has associated itself with the Shemaroo initiative as knowledge partner.

The students of the institute will create content booklets to go with the DVD packs of special feature section of the world cinema to give the viewers a prior knowledge of the titles.

Each DVD will also be accompanied by short movies made by the students of Whistling Woods International.

Shemaroo's world cinema library contains selected movies from all the major filmmaking countries of the world, including the master works of Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut, Claude Berri, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Pedro Almodovar, Takashi Miike, Roman Polanski, Andre Techine and Claude Charbol.

Indo-Asian News Service

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