The Venice Film Festival (labiennale.org) announced July 11, 2025, it will be screening the restored Bimal Roy classic “Do Bigha Zamin” which was made in 1953. It will be at the Venice Classics program which this year is presenting 18 film restorations of masterpieces completed over the past year from film libraries, cultural institution and productions around the world. The Venice Film Festival will be held on the Lido di Venezia from August 27 to September 6, 2025.
Director of Venice Classics Tommaso Santambrogio, noted while listing the films in the announcement, “… traveling eastward into India with Do Bigha Zamin (Two Acres of Land) by Bimal Roy, one of the masterpieces of 1950s Indian cinema, with its distinctive Neorealist inspiration.”
Santambrogio(Taxibol, Oceans are the Real Continents) will chair the Jury of Film Students, which – for the twelfth year – will award the Venice Classics prizesfor the respective competitions for Best Restored Film, under which Roy’s film will be judged, and for the Best Documentary About Cinema. The Jury will be composed of 24 students, each of them recommended by professors of film studies from various Italian universities, DAMS and from Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, the Venice Film Festival announcement said.
Venice Classics is the section that since 2012 has presented a selection of the best restorations of film classics at the Venice Film Festival.
Roy’s black-and-white film has been restored by Film Heritage Foundation – India’s “The Criterion Collection.”
In their press release, FHF said the film will be presented in Venice by the Bimal Roy family represented by his two daughters Rinki Roy Bhattacharya and Aparajita Roy Sinha, his son Joy Bimal Roy and Film Heritage Foundation Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.
The Criterion Collection / Janus Films in collaboration with Film Heritage Foundation have restored the critically acclaimed “Do Bigha Zamin” which was the first Indian film to win the Prix International at the Cannes Film Festival in 1954; the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival award; and won the Best Film and Best Director awards at the first Indian Filmfare awards.
In an extensive post on the Film Heritage Foundation site, India’s leading poet and lyricist, said, “It’s amazing that Do Bigha Zamin is restored and will be shown in Venice. This film is historic as it changed the way films were made in India.”
According to Gulzar, “The most important element is that all his films right from the Bengali ones which he made and the Hindi films which he made, all these films were based on literature. Not many people know that Do Bigha Zamin is from a poem by Rabindranath Tagore, which was also called Do Bigha Zamin. The script was done by Salil Choudhury.”
Gulzar recounted how he started as a chief assistant to Roy, who everyone called “Dada” since the film “Kabuliwala” was made, and how Roy would work around the clocke to fine-tune and marry the film to the sound, the prevalent technology in those days.
“Bimal Roy was the coolest director I have ever seen. I learnt not only filmmaking from him, but the art of patience and stamina,” Gulzar is quoted saying on the Film Heritage Foundation website.
Dungarpur, the founder of FHF, said about Roy’s films, “In his films I was struck by the poetic visuals, the silences, the deep humanism and compassion that he showed in the social themes of his films that highlighted the plight of the marginalized, the issues of the migrant labour, and the urban-rural divide that are still so relevant today,” adding, “For me “Do Bigha Zamin” changed the face of Indian cinema that brought filmmakers out of the studio to begin shooting on the streets.”
FHF also cites a memorable quote about Roy by the late, globally renowned film-maker Satyajit Ray — “He (Roy) was undoubtedly a pioneer. He reached his peak with a film that still reverberates in the minds of those who saw it when it was first made. I refer to Do Bigha Zamin, which remains one of the landmarks of Indian cinema.”
The restoration of “Do Bigha Zamin” has taken over three years, begun in 2022, in collaboration with The Criterion Collection / Janus Films, FHF says on its website.
The process of restoration was complicated. Film Heritage Foundation says it accessed the original camera negative and the sound negative that had been deposited by the Bimal Roy family at the NFDC-National Film Archive of India (NFAI) for preservation.
An inspection of the film found that the elements had deteriorated over time “with huge tears, damage from mould, heavy watermarks.”
FHF worked on the repair of these elements before the reels were shipped to L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna. The original camera negative did not have the opening titles and the last reel was missing. The sound negative also had problems with poor audio, interrupted dialogues and missing sound.
Fortunately, a combined dupe negative on Dupont/Kodak stock from 1954-55 of “Do Bigha Zamin” was found at the British Film Institute (BFI), which was used to complete the restoration.
