The renowned Indian dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar's only film, Kalpana, which had been caught in a long ownership battle, was finally screened on national television on Saturday after 69 years of its release.
The dance-drama expressed Shankar's vision of a nation that would reach into the future while holding strongly to its roots. Kalpana was shown at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI-Goa) (2008), as a part of the section 'Treasures from NFAI' (National Film Archive of India).
The film was telecast on Lok Sabha Television channel at 9 pm on Saturday and will be rerun today at 2 pm.
On February 2, 2002, Sulekha Jindal had bought the film along with its copyright but continued to fight a case with Uday Shankar's wife over its ownership.
According to Times of India, Jindal said, "Yet, Uday Shankar's wife Amala Shankar filed a case over ownership of the film. After 12 long years, the case was dismissed in my favour on January 28, 2014. I am the absolute owner and copyright-holder of the film."
But despite the order being passed in Jindal's favour, the controversy refused to die as Jindal got involved in a conflict with the NFAI.
"NFAI director Prakash Magdum visited Kolkata and met me. We have resolved our problems. My main objective was to show the film to the common man," said a happy Jindal.
The is going to present the film," she added. Jindal belongs to the family of producers associated with "Rajnigandha" and "Shatranj Ki Khiladi".
She is also keen on releasing DVDs of Kalpana. "We hold the right to the film's negative in all formats and the satellite rights. No DVDs are available at present. I will look into how the film links are still being uploaded on YouTube," said Jindal.
