A Vizag-based movie buff has claimed to have developed software that can convert a black and white movie into coloured at one-third the cost of the package that converted Mughal-e-Azam into coloured.
"The present apparatus developed by me is capable of enhancing the quality of a black and white film in less time and in one-third of the cost in what is expected to be spending by other methods of colouring," he says.
Sudhakara Rao had always been keen to achieve something different which in turn could make his love for old classic films stand out from the rest of the fans.
Consequently, what he had started as a hobby, using digital imaging application software process over a Telugu classic 'Maya Bazaar', seemingly turned out to be a breakthrough in colour processing movies in the country.
“Younger generation doesn’t have much interest in watching old films as they are in black and white shades. By colouring these old movies, we can create interest of young generation in old films,” says V Vivek, a young student. Reportedly, a Mumbai-based firm, the Indian Academy of Arts and Animation (IAAA), had charged around eight crore rupees to converter Hindi classic Mughal-e-Azam into a coloured movie, using a special software named “Effect Plus” after almost 24 months of work.
The colour conversion of this film, which was one of the biggest ever renaissance of a classic in Indian cinema, had enthralled the young generation when they watched it in colour recently.
The most expensive Bollywood film of its time, Mughal-e-Azam, a love saga of Salim and Anarkali, was the first-ever 35 mm film in the history of world cinema to be converted into colour.
The experiment heralded an era of a new drift wherein old stuff was to be tailored in new trends to entice the generation next. And now, Sudhakara Rao’s claimed innovation is further expected to propel the boom in the business of colouring old films to allure the new generation. |
