Restored 4K version of Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ set for world premiere at Venice
THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK Mumbai, July 12: The newly restored 4K version of (1953), a milestone of Indian cinema directed by…
THE JHARKHAND STORY DESK
Mumbai, July 12: The newly restored 4K version of (1953), a milestone of Indian cinema directed by Bimal Roy, is set to make its world premiere at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. The announcement coincided with the legendary director’s 116th birth anniversary.
The restoration project, initiated in 2022, took over three years and involved painstaking work using original negatives sourced from the National Film Archive of India and the British Film Institute. The initiative was led by the Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with The Criterion Collection and Janus Films.
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Members of Bimal Roy’s family—including his daughters Rinki Roy Bhattacharya and Aparajita Roy Sinha, as well as his son Joy Bimal Roy—will attend the festival alongside Film Heritage Foundation director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
Widely considered a cornerstone of Indian filmmaking, Do Bigha Zamin is known for its realistic and empathetic portrayal of rural displacement and urban poverty. Inspired by Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, the film follows the journey of a destitute farmer who moves to the city with his son to save their land. Balraj Sahni’s performance in the lead role continues to receive critical acclaim.
The film made history in 1954 as the first Indian movie to win the Prix International at the Cannes Film Festival. It also gained accolades at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and bagged both Best Film and Best Director at the inaugural Filmfare Awards in India.
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Bimal Roy, celebrated for his poetic narratives and focus on social realism, played a key role in defining Indian cinema’s Golden Age in the 1950s and 1960s. His legacy endures decades after his untimely death in 1966 at the age of 56.
