Speaking at the precursor event to the Film Restoration and Preservation Workshop 2017 in Chennai, Mani Ratnam rued that all of the late veteran cinematographer-filmmaker Balu Mahendra’s movies have been lost.
“We have been floundering in the dark. All of the late Balu Mahendra’s films have gone, and most of my films have gone. Now, we’re not able to just get it back. That when I met Shiv and he instilled hope in me. For a country which is making so many films, we are just starting to think about preserving and restoring it. We badly needed somebody who was very passionate about it. I thank Shivendra for leading us from this darkness,” said Mani Ratnam.
Shivendra Dungarpur, founder-director of Film Heritage Foundation, said, “The program this year is further strengthened with support of Viacom18 and enriched by partnering with The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, L’Immagine Ritrovata, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Prasad Corp., La Cinémathèque française, Imperial War Museums, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, the Finnish Film Archive and the Czech National Film Archive and The Criterion Collection.