Mrinal Sen Original Film Scripts lost

Mrinal Sen's only son Kunal bemoaned that the auteur's original screenplays had been misplaced, and that they could have been utilized to showcase the internationally recognized director's creative thinking process ahead of his birth centennial next year.

Kunal Sen was speaking at a Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute’s (SRFTI) celebration of his father's 99th birthday, a doyen of Indian new wave film, organized by the West Bengal Film Journalists' Association (WBFJA).

"Unfortunately, no original scripts of movies directed by Baba are available anymore as far as I know. These scripts might have been misplaced in 2003-04, during the shifting of our house. Father was not very organized in keeping things in order,"he asserted.

He pointed out that, unlike another great filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Sen's initial scripts experienced a sea of change as shooting progressed and even during the editing process, and as a result the product would be different from what he had envisioned at the beginning.

"I was associated with the digitisation of Ray's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne. I was amazed  to see the way he had put everything in place in a detailed manner and stuck to that during shooting. On the other hand, Baba's filmmaking process was more instinctive and prone to last-minute changes,"Kunal Sen said. He regretted that if the original screenplays had been available, the well-known director's creative process could have been adequately chronicled.

Furthermore, he expressed his displeasure that most of Sen's films, with the exception of those restored by the National Film Development Corporation in the years 2017-18, could not be preserved . The NFDC has not responded to requests to see the auteur's works, according to Sen, who inquired about where they might see the NFDC's output. There was a promise from an NFDC official to investigate.