V Shantaram and a visit
to Pune Film Institute
by Sayeed Ahmad
My official trip continued with a visit to Pune on May 30, 1978, where I was taken to the Pune Film Institute and Archives situated on 25-acre estate. It had been built and originally owned by V Shantaram of Prabhat Films. He was a brilliant director-producer, I saw two of this films named, ‘Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani’ and ‘Dahej’ in Dhaka when I was in my teens. The government of India had acquired this fine plot about six years ago. It had many studios, laboratories and recording facilities and therefore the government was able to benefit from and save on such basic investments. I came across V Shantaram’s driver, a man named Jalil Miah, who had continued to work at the Film Institute in an exalted position. He told me several stories about Shantaram, who was a fine conversationalist and humble personality, who chatted with him on his road trips between Pune and Mumbai.
Pune Film Institute has become of the renowned centres for film-making and TV production training. At that time there was training for both in-service personnel and new recruits of television. They had introduced a new form of visual media training called the ‘integrated course’. Before this, television media training was only available in Delhi. The National School of Drama of Delhi started sending its students to Pune to get broader and more modern concepts of the media. I met the acting director, Kudba, in his office to discuss the workings of the Film Institute. He showed me round in the absence of his director. A special meeting had been arranged with he teaching staff and I also met the famous teacher Satish Bahadur, Head of the Film Section. He had already visited Dhaka in 1977 and I had attended his lecture on film techniques held at the department of films and publications. He was originally a chemistry student but changed his line to join film development. I also met Gopal, dean of the cinematography faculty and Guishan Kapur, head of the dramatic arts department, a very humorous Punjabi. It was a most rewarding time for me to visit the Film Archives Section shown to me by M Pramanik, acting director, in the place of Nair, who was known as the doyen of this richly documented archive centre.
The next day on Nair’s arrival we had discussions regarding the exchange of rare films by our two countries. Nair had special corner for Bangladesh in his heart, having spent good time in Calcutta with the film industry He agreed to send rare films such as Satyajit Rays famous films and those of Japanese director Kurosawa. I also met Mr. Chadravarkar, Head of the Department of Music, a composer who wrote the music for the famous play Ghasi Ram Kotwal. The play was a satire on Indira Gandhi and was banned in parts of India, but it ran successfully in London. I had a breakfast appointment with Chandravarkar at 8am the next morning. We sat down to a vegetarian meal with puree bhaji and other items. We talked about his wonderful music compositions for the play Ghasi Ram Kotwal and rambled on to talk of our love for music. We would sip cold water from silver handle-free cups called katoras, an aesthetic pleasure. In the course of our discussions, I told him of my association with Ustad Alauddin Khan and Ravi Shankar. On hearing this he was suddenly inspired and said he would play a raaga for me. It was Hamsa-dhani and I was lost in the notes of sitar over almost an hour. He was a student of Ravi Shankar.
I gave a lecture on Bengali films at the institute and later on went to a lunch hosted by Satish Bahadur with teachers and students. The following day I was taken to see the film shooting facilities and their working schedule. They have four studios and a large outdoor facility. I met Sethi, an eminent technician of the film world, who was a guiding spirit. A lot of the equipment was indigenous although they had received valuable and latest equipment through UNbP. The television media centre was under the direction of Joya Chandiram and was providing latest training methodology to the students.
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