Filmmakers Martin Scorsese and George Lucas have joined hands with the Film Heritage Foundation of India. Their objective? To effectively restore 1977 Kannada classic film Ghatashraddha. The keynote Sandalwood film is based on the novella by litterateur U.R. Ananthamurthy. The film captures the life of a woman being outcast by her conservative society after she steps outside the moral code of sexual conduct - choosing to go through an abortion.

Ghatashraddha will soon be restored

India's Film Heritage Foundation, will be taking the lead on the restoration project supported by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, founded by Scorsese. The effort is being funded by George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson’s Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The restoration will be seen through at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. Additionally, the restoration will be attempted on the original camera negative preserved at the National Film Development Corporation-National Film Archive of India.

As per a Variety report, the Indian Film Heritage Foundation's archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, said, "With 14 National Awards to his credit, Girish Kasaravalli is a leading light of Kannada cinema and we preserve his material in our archive.  His first film Ghatashraddha was an obvious next choice for us to propose for restoration to The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project. We are so pleased that they agreed to collaborate with us and delighted that George Lucas and Mellody Hobson will be supporting the restoration through the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation."

Ghatashraddha director expresses his gratitude

For the unversed, Ghatashraddha was directed by Girish Kasaravalli. A a graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India, Kasaravalli's diploma film Avashesh won him a National Film Award for best short fiction film. Ghatashraddha too, was honoured with three National Film Award wins including that of best film. 

He said, "The fact that my film has been selected for restoration by none other than these doyens among filmmakers, is a matter of pride and great honor. I am thankful to Mr. Scorsese and World Cinema Project and Mr. George Lucas and Mrs. Mellody Hobson and Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. I would also like to give my sincere thanks to Mr. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur of Film Heritage Foundation who not only did put forward the proposal for restoration but also pursued it to its logical conclusion...It is a joy to see that the restoration work at the foundation is undertaken with so much love and care for the art form along with due respect to the innate vision of the filmmaker. I just can’t wait to see the restored version of my film in all its pristine beauty."