Making films ‘visually’ appealing

It’s time for the visually impaired to ‘see’ films differently with audio-enhancing devices.

Aamir Khan’s PK may have released over a year ago, but there are a few of us who are enjoying the film in its entirety only now — Yogesh Taneja for instance. A bank manager in the city, Yogesh sat clueless through some of the films funniest and most crucial bits — like Aamir Khan walking in from an alien planet covering his modesty with a radio — because it was a silent scene with no one prompting him about the developments on screen. Visually challenged individuals such as him never have a paisa-vasool experience at a movie theatre simply because they miss out on half of the content that isn’t dialogue-driven. And considering the fact that India has one in every three visually impaired people in the world, it’s a problem that ails more than just a few.

Changing that, or at least making a very concerted effort towards it is Nidhi Goyal, an activist for the visually impaired who organised a one-of-a-kind screening earlier this month — one which is audio description-enhanced. What it does is fills in the viewer on scenes that are mute, but still very visually appealing.

“What is unique about such screenings is the collective experience for the visually impaired, of watching a film without having to depend on family and friends to understand it,” says Nidhi who organised the screening of Awesome Mausam for over 35 visually challenged people in a suburban theatre in Mumbai.

Nidhi is taking cue from a Delhi-based NGO called Saksham that has been working towards a similar cause for years now.

Remember the scene from Bhag Milkha Bhaag where Farhan Akhtar is practising with his coach, with tires tied around his feet While the scene may seem visually enchanting, wait until you hear the audio-enhanced version of the scene, says the founder of Saksham, Rummi Seth. “There are some silent portions in the film, where there are no dialogues at all. I was once in a theatre with some visually impaired people and there came a silent portion. The whole theatre was enjoying the scene, but they had to turn to me and ask what was happening. That’s when the idea was triggered. I realised that audio description of films was easily available abroad, so it was time to bring it to India as well.”

Saksham started with audio enhancing of films with Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black in 2005 since her efforts were closer to the subject of the film as well. They already have over 22 films, documentaries and children’s content in their cache and are trying to rope in other big banners to make entertainment completely inclusive. But it’s no easy task — it’s expensive and you need a mature voice to do justice to the scene. Thankfully for Rummi, the latter’s taken care of.

“Veteran actor Sushma Seth (the adorable dadi in Dekh Bhai Dekh) has been doing audio description for our films since the time we started. It costs up to a lakh from scripting to sound engineering and the whole process involves rewriting the script for the silent portions and describing the sequence accurately,” she says.

The movement so far has gotten support from Aamir Khan who readily agreed to have audio versions of his films Taree Zameen Par, Dhobi Ghat and Peepli Live. “The original DVD of PK now has an audio track. Aamir Khan was very forthcoming and made sure all the minute details are taken care of. We are trying to convince the makers of Bajrangi Bhaijaan for a few months now, but it is taking some time. Eventually it'll come through I hope,” says Rummi. What Rummi and Nidhi are working towards next, is trying to have inbuilt audio-description tracks for films’ theatre release unlike a DVD release months after the film is out. “We need to create awareness of our community which enjoys watching films as much as anyone else. Our first audio-description enhanced screening helped us send out a message that filmmakers should think about us as an audience as well. By the time the DVDs are released, we have heard enough about the film and the novelty wears off. We need filmmakers to have a default audio-description during the time of theatre release itself.”

Yogesh Taneja who is one of the many rooting for the cause shares, “With the description, we can watch the films like everyone else and enjoy it with them at the same time, not some months later. I remember while watching PK in the theatre, I wouldn’t get the alien scene at all. Later I saw the audio enhanced version and it all made sense. It’s very sad that makers put in so much money into a film and while audio enhancing the film we need to put huge sums of money again, but we still get to see the film much later. I think they should make it mandatory for all the filmmakers to have an audio description in their films. It's time they took this set of film enthusiastic audience seriously too!”