After Satyajit Ray was awarded a lifetime Oscar in 1992, the Academy Film Archives of the US Academy of Motion Pictures followed up the tribute to the legendary filmmaker by undertaking massive projects to restore his films – a total of 37, including documentaries and shorts.

Having already restored ‘Aparajito’ - which will be screened for the first time, since the restoration, at the 14th Kolkata Film Festival – the archives will restore Ray’s ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ (The Chess Player) over the next year.  

In fact, four restored Ray films and also some of the maestro’s favorite Hollywood films will be screened at the Kolkata Festival.

Meanwhile, restoration work for Ray’s ‘Sikkim’, an hour long documentary, is also on; restoration of ‘Abhijaan’ has reached the half-way mark, and the Academy also plans a full color restoration for ‘Kanchanjungha’, due to the damaged original negative of the film.

The restoration process in the Academy at Los Angeles involves an intricate and tedious way of developing a master positive from the damaged negatives, improving the quality digitally and also restoring the audio system.

A noted Academy preservationist, Josef Lindner, says: “If the restored films are preserved properly they can remain for centuries. Restoring a colored film roughly requires a steep budget of $1,00,000, while a black and white film can be restored for around $50,000. The Academy keeps one master positive of every film that is restored.”