I wish I had been exposed to world cinema earlier: Subhash Ghai

MUMBAI: Subhash Ghai, who churned out hits like Saudagar and Ram Lakhan, regrets that when he started directing movies in the mid-1970s, he had no access to world cinema to study the works of filmmakers from other parts of the world.

"There were few international movies that I could see was when I was doing a diploma course in acting at the Film and Television Instuitute of India (FTII) in Pune," Ghai said. "So, when I took to direction, I had no option but to observe how the filmmakers before me had made movies in Bollywood and learn the ropes."

He was speaking at the launch of Shemaroo Entertainment's world cine label in Mumbai. Ghai said the initiative would be of great help to the new breed of filmmakers.

"Watching the DVDs of world classics made by the masters of cinema, I'm sure, would help to raise the benchmark of filmmaking in India," Ghai said.

Ghai's own film-training institute, Whistling Woods International, has associated itself with the Shemaroo initiative as knowledge partner.

Students of the institute will create content booklets to go with the DVD packs of the special feature section of world cinema to give viewers prior knowledge of the titles.

Each DVD will be accompanied by short movies made by students of Whistling Woods.

Shemaroo's world cinema library contains movies from all major filmmaking countries and includes the master works of Akira Kurosawa, Francois Truffaut, Claude Berri, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Pedro Almodovar, Takashi Miike, Roman Polanski, Andre Techine and Claude Chabrol.