SACF gets 41,500 pounds from Heritage Lottery Fund

London: A West London-based South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF) has received 41,500 pounds grant from Britain`s Heritage Lottery Fund to uncover a hidden and highly significant part of Indo-British film heritage in the UK.

Revealing this Lalit Mohan Joshi, Director of the Hounslow-based Foundation said, "The grant will be utilised to research, collate, document and digitise highlights of the period, put them into a documentary film and organise film screening and other community events through the engagement and input of a group of adult volunteers." Commencing from the 1930s, the one-year project entitled `A Hidden Heritage - Indo-British Film Collaboration` in UK (1930-1951) will first focus on Himasu Rai and Devika Rani`s `Karma` (1933). "This was the first Indo-British talking film that was completed in the UK and released with much fanfare in both London and Birmingham," Joshi said. Interestingly, its music composer was a classical British composer of the London Symphony Orchestra who is still alive. The project will also highlight the work of Sabu, the first Indian who became an international star and the remarkable life of an Anglo-Indian actress, Merle Oberon who moved to Britain, worked in films with top English actors such as Laurence Olivier and also made a mark in Hollywood. "The project is bound to expose some almost completely forgotten film personalities of the era," Joshi said. "The Foundation will work with volunteers to find out and highlight salient landmarks of the period with training and support provided by the project, they will assist in producing a number of public events and some tangible outcomes," he said. These include a set of oral history interviews of older people about their memories of the films of the period, a documentary film, 2 public exhibitions, free screening of some relevant films, sharing the project findings with the general public through presentations, a `Who`s Who` of the era and sharing the material generated by the project after digitising through the worldwide web. "The Foundation will once again partner with the British Film Institute Library to collate data and identify important but forgotten Indo-British films of this period. They will also be provided training by staff from the British Library and the University of Westminster," he said. SACF`s Indo-British film heritage project will end with `The River` (1951), an international landmark film, shot in Bengal, based on the novel and screenplay of famous English writer Rumer Godden. "This will provide an opportunity to conclude with highlighting the crucial link between UK and Satyajit Ray, the Indian filmmaker who placed India on the world`s film map. In the recent past SACF carried out a highly successful project highlighting an earlier period of UK`s Indo-British film history through a project funded by the HLF that was centered around the life and cinematic works of Niranjan Pal, a remarkable Indian based in London between 1908 and 1929. "Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported almost 35,000 projects with more than 5.3 billion pounds across the UK," its spokesperson said. PTI