By our reporter
Toronto: The just concluded Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) screened Raj Kapoor’s iconic Awaara now restored in 4K under the Indian government’s National Film Heritage Mission.
The world’s premiere film festival screened the restored Awaara to mark the birth anniversary of Raj Kapoor.
“Everybody knows about Raja Kapoor, there is not much that I can say. This film has been restored by the National Film Heritage Mission under the auspices of the government of India. We are taking all the old films and trying to restore them,” said Bandit Queen director Shekhar Kapoor who presented the film to the audience.
“The idea of restoration is to present the film as the director intended,” Kapoor added.
Calling the restoration of old films a very painstaking process, he said it involves frame by frame work because there are scratched frames, cut frames and frames that are lost.
“Awaara’s restoration is not complete. We are still working on the sound. When we restore it fully, it will have greatl sound.”
Shekhar Kapoor said Awaara still remains Bollywood’s highest grosser in international markets.
“If you go dollar then and dollar now, Awaara has been the biggest international grossing film in India ever. Despite all that you hear (about films) today, Awaara was the biggest one. At that time, it did business worth $40 million outside of India. You can imagine what that is worth today.”
