Over a thousand visually and hearing impaired children got a chance to enjoy and relive the Bollywood classic Sholay today morning at the Siri Fort Auditorium in a special inclusive screening, marking the completion of 43 years of the film.
The screening with audio-description, subtitles and sign-language interpretation made for a delightful watch for the visually and hearing impaired children from schools, NGOs and other institutions across Delhi NCR.
Saksham Trust, with the support of SAPIENT and The Directorate of Film Festivals, organised the most inclusive screening of popular Bollywood film Sholay to date. Saksham Trust has audio-described 28 Bollywood films and has been honoured with a National Award in 2015 for their efforts in the field of education, assistive technology solutions, inclusive entertainment and a school for children with vision impairment. Veteran voice artist and documentary filmmaker Narendra Joshi gave the audio description for Sholay.
He said, “Audio descriptor of a film acts as a bridge between the director and the audience. Describing a film requires a thorough understanding of the director’s mindset. This helps in writing the audio description script and the writer must also keep in mind the points of view of the visually impaired audience.”
The initiative was undertaken to promote audio-description, subtitles and sign-language interpretations for every movie screening. Founder of Saksham Trust and President of Daisy Forum of India, Dipendra Manocha also said, “Our vision is that audio description must become part of the production of every movie made in India.”
