MUMBAI: At a time when old classics are being released again in colorised versions, Seagull Media Productions’ has completed a black and white film, Frozen, which features veteran actor Danny Denzongpa.
The film will have its international premiere at the forthcoming Toronto Film Festival, to be held in September 2007 and will be screened at the festival’s Discovery Section.
Frozen features Denzongpa along with Gauri, Shilpa Shukla, Angchuk, Anuradha Boral, Yashpal Sharma with Denzil Smith, Amir Bashir, Raj Zutshi, Shakeel Khan, Habib, Manish Mathur, Sanjay Swaraj and Sonam. The entire film was shot in Ladakh in freezing temperatures of minus 25 degrees Celsius.
Elaborating on why the film has been made sans colour, the makers say, “We did a couple of tests using colour stock and found that the landscape looks spectacular, the results were astounding. But we also noticed that it does not come across as a cold and hard place to live in. The beautiful shades of amber were giving us the impression of summer. So we decided to try a different approach and black and white worked. The image was just too overwhelming. The shades of grey and the barren look would work as a combination to do justice to the story, and bring out the ethos of the characters.”
The story of Frozen is set against the backdrop of these extreme conditions. For the characters, this is part of their daily life. This terrain and landscape was chosen consciously because it does justice to the concept of people coming together but instead of sharing warmth and affection, ending up in a state we call ‘frozen’.
Produced and directed by Shivajee Chandrabhushan, the film has cinematography by Shankar Raman, sound by Abhijeet Roy, stunts by Sham Kaushal and Dawa Tsering. Alan McAlex is the line producer.
