Tarun AgarwaThe doomed romance of Salim and Anarkali is set to win hearts once again. The coloured version of Mughal-e-Azam, the classic that was 10 years in the making, is in the theatres complete with digitally re-mastered sound and images.

SV Road resident visual effects director Tarun Agarwal of Rajtaru Video Sonic Ltd., and a team of eight others, handled the restoration of the negatives of the film for its release this November.

The negatives came to Agarwal and his team at the last stage of activity, after they had been coloured by Indian Academy of Arts and Animation, a Sion-based company. We are actually responsible for polishing the final product that you see on the screen, says Agarwal.

When the negatives came to them, They were in bad shape, he says. Full of scratches, dirt and jerky cuts, the negatives were showing all the effects of having been canned for so long.

We had to eliminate the jerkiness, clean the film and match one shot with the other to make it seamless, explains this 30 year-old visual effects director.

With three other big budget films releasing on the same date, the challenge was obviously to make it look like a new film. We had to ensure that we balanced the colours and increased the sharpness of each frame, he says.

This is one of the most prestigious projects I have worked on till date. The sheer magnitude of the film and the beauty of the story makes it an unbelievable experience, he smiles.

Agarwal and his team of eight took around three months to complete the project. We were fairly in control throughout because we have the required technology, he claims.

sowmya.rajaram@mid-day.com