Work on the English, August DVD is now nearing completion.
Sound Designer P.M. Satheesh hunted down the original Digital tapes and has painstakingly built up the entire sound track from scratch. P.M. Satheesh calls it a ‘labour of love, for a movie which began the next generation of Indian cinema.’
The original location audio was recorded in digital stereo by the sound guru Vikram Joglekar. Vikram recorded the entire film in sync sound and English, August became the first Indian film to do this in a long long while after the 50’s. Vikram who is a master Dhrupad singer, head of Dolby Labs in Italy and a complete tech head is fondly called The Don. His knowledge of cinema sound and Indian classical music is legendary.
The original negative of the film is being mastered frame by frame on an ITK telecine at Famous Laboratories in Bombay under the supervision of Director of Photography Jogendra ‘Jean-Luc’ Panda.
The Director’s Cut of the film will be shorter than the theatrical version. Currently in production, the DVD will have a new Dolby Digital soundtrack. The DVD will also be made from the original 35mm negative in a widescreen edition enhanced for television and will include scenes screened once during its Toronto 1994 premiere and subsequently deleted from theatrical release — scenes never before featured in the film.
The DVD release will also feature additional music and a re-mixed soundtrack by Uday Benegal and Jayesh Gandhi of the group Alms for Shanti. The 35mm theatrical version to be released will then conform to this new edition.