Pooja Bhatt had a fascinating conversation with film archivist and author S M M Ausaja on her podcast, The Pooja Bhatt Show. Ausaja spoke about building one of the largest private archives of film memorabilia and much more. He also lamented the lack of will within the Indian film industry to save and preserve artefacts from films of yesteryear. At the same time, he mentioned some prominent film personalities who proved to be exceptions.
S M M Ausaja said, “When I started out, I was trying to organize an exhibition. I had so many lovely photographs and lobby cards. Hence, I prepared a few presentations and approached several corporates to seek their support in putting up the exhibition. This was around 10 years ago. However, the corporates were not interested in the content at all! They would ask me, ‘Will you get Akshay Kumar to inaugurate the exhibition?’ They were only concerned about the kind of footfall the event would generate for the brand they were promoting. That is what we have become.”
He added, “It made me wonder – why should I even hold exhibitions? I should start writing books. That’s how I wrote my first book, ‘Bollywood In Posters’.”
He then revealed, “Within the film fraternity, there are some people who are interested in preservation. For example, Farah Khan. Her father (Kamran Khan) was an actor, producer and director and he did a lot of films. However, he was not very successful. She made sure that I gave her everything on her father. She has preserved them. A few of the posters are very rare because those films never got re-released. It is very difficult to find the poster of a film which has not done well, compared to a film which has done. Kyunki re-release ke waqt posters dobaara chhapte the.”
Ausaja continued, “Riteish Deshmukh is a collector and has a huge archive of posters. However, the industry as a whole has ignored the importance of archiving and documenting cinema, which is very, very sad.”
Pooja Bhatt then remarked, “You mentioned somewhere that Shah Rukh Khan had bid on posters of Mughal-E-Azam (1960).” S M M Ausaja replied, “Yes. He didn’t just acquire posters of Mughal-E-Azam; he picked up 12 or 13 items. Anil Kapoor also bid on some items at the auction we had organized in Bangkok because his father had worked as an assistant on the film.”
In September 2014, it was reported by PTI that Shah Rukh bought two majestic original posters of Mughal-E-Azam for Rs 6.84 lakhs.
More Pages: Mughal-E-Azam Box Office Collection , Mughal-E-Azam Movie Review
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