It took him three years to make Madhubala blush, but Umar Siddiqui's finally managed it. Siddiqui and his team have undertaken the task of converting K Asif's black-and-white classic Mughal-e-Azam into an all-colour epic and the results are striking. Dilip Kumar is said to have been moved to tears when he saw some of his reworked scenes. And Naushad was similarly moved when he heard his melodies re-recorded in Dolby sound.
Siddiqui says the task was not easy because the prints were in very bad shape. But painstaking efforts have seen his team inch towards their goal and they hope to release the new version around the end of this year.
Incidentally, several film-makers have toyed with the idea of re-making the classic but dropped the idea because the film's modern-day budget is estimated to hit the Rs 100-core mark. Siddiqui points out that the producers of the original film, Shapoorji Pallonji, had wanted an all-colour film to begin with, but Finally only some scenes to make the movie
Colouring it is a far less expensive option-Siddiqui says he has spent around Rs 5 crore up till now.
Will it be worth it? Will high-tech gloss add to the romance of this love story? Will Anarkali's final adaab move us more deeply in colour? Wait, watch and decide.
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