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Rohan Shippy
The laboratory is literally at the heart of the film-making process. It is where the film negative that is exposed on shooting the actors is developed, processed and printed, and then ultimately transformed into the final product. And at the time of the film's release, hundreds of prints are made and transported all over the country and the world for simultaneous viewing. And after the release it is where the film negative is stored.
It is also at the heart of the business of film. The laboratory is the ultimate financial guarantor in the trade. It is on the assurance of the lab that actors, financiers and distributors honour their commitment to the producer, since the lab is in the position to ensure that the film is not released until all dues are cleared.
One of the oldest and largest labs around is Film Center. It has been around for more than fifty years, which in a business where longevity is far from the norm, is an eon. It was set up by my maternal grandfather Ambalal Patel, and then after hisdeath in 1961, run by his four sons. That generation took it forward 38 years, till the death of his youngest son Ramesh Patel this week.
He kept it true to its name, and sustained it as a hub of the trade. A number of box-office superhits, from Sholay to Hum Aapke Hain Kaun to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge to Raja Hindustani have been processed at Film Center. At one time, there was a music recording center on the premises, where innumerable classics were created, from Mehbooba to Ek Ladki Ko Dekha, among others.
I spent many hours of my childhood in the screening room there, invited by my uncle to watch the latest Nasir Husain musical extravaganza, or Amitabh Bachchan's latest rendition of the angry young man, always feeling that slight sense of privilege of being able to watch the film a few days before the release.
And there has always been a lively atmosphere at Film Center, peopled as it always seems to be with agents, distributors, financiers, and producers. There was always a buzzabout the place, the latest gossip, rumours and industry jokes floating around. And whenever I visited I was treated to the best coffee with which to savour the trade's latest mantra which was being expounded in my uncle's cabin. (``Only action films work,'' ``Action films never work,'' ``Cinemascope films are bigger hits than 70 mm films so technically it must be a better format,'' and other such aphorisms gleaned by the scientific method).
At the time of the release of a film, the place was really humming. The huge printing machines churning out print after print in a race against time, in order to get the plane to Toronto or the train to Patiala. And on the business side of it, to make sure that the financial side of things was in order. Which it rarely was.
Often distributors would come up short, or offer post-dated cheques, which to a producer is extremely expensive blotting paper, or the producer would demand a price hike in order to cover his costs; in either case the lab would be involved, in aproblem with no visible solution, and with the clock ticking as the release date was set and could not be disrupted. At times like that, Ramesh Patel took on the sagacity of Geoffrey Rush's character Philip Henslowe in Shakespeare In Love, convincing both parties that it would ultimately work out, but when asked how, saying that it is a mystery. Because he knew that the same people would be back at his table next year, arguing over the same old things for the next film, and things ultimately did get sorted out.
Ramesh Patel was the heart of Film Center. I will miss him.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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