Exclusive! Producers of Satyajit Ray's Pratidwandi miffed after restored film is screened at Cannes Film Festival without intimation

The producers of Pratidwandi have complained that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India ‘did not even bother to inform the family about the screening’.

Image via Twitter @Festival_Cannes

Amid the glamour and glitz at the 75th Cannes Film Festival that started on May 17, a restored version of Satyajit Ray’s 1970 classic Pratidwandi was screened at the festival on May 19.

The official Twitter handle of the festival shared the news, “A rare film, an exclusivity: Pratidwandi by the Indian director and great author Satyajit Ray in screening today at 2pm in the Salle Buñuel in a restored version. A screening #CannesClassics in the colors of India, "Country of Honour" of the @mdf_cannes this year. #Cannes2022 (sic).”

Meanwhile, the producer’s family complained that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India ‘did not even bother to inform the family about the screening’.

“When they (National Film Archive Of India, Pune) took the film, they promised to show us the restored version. They did not. Now, the ministry took almost 400-people strong contingent to the festival and did not even bother to inform us about the restoration or screening, let along asking us to present it at the festival. I find it blatant arrogance,” said Arijit Dutta of Priya Films, the producer of the film (Nepal Dutta and Asim Dutta were the producers of Pratidwandi) told OTTplay.

In late December last year, the NFAI director Prakash Magdum came down to Kolkata to get the original camera negative of Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi from its producer, Purnima Dutta. He also got the negatives of Sonar Kella, Hirak Rajar Deshe Ray’s documentary on his father Sukumar Ray and Goutam Ghose’s documentary on Satyajit Ray from the West Bengal government, which has produced all of these films.

On Ray’s birthday, he tweeted, “Thrilled that Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi will be part of #CannesClassics. Thanks to producer Pournima Dutta who entrusted @NFAIOfficial with original camera negative, this 4K restoration was supervised by @sudeepdop. Glad to have played my part as tribute to the Maestro! (sic)”

However, Prakash is no longer the director of NFAI as the body is not merged with the National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC).

“Prakash promised to take care of the film restoration. However, now that he has been transferred to some other department, nobody else was bothered. We kept all Ray’s films with utmost care and did not try to monitise it. We are really heartbroken and angry,” added Arijit.

We reached out to NFDC for its reaction. However, we are yet to get a response from the body.

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