It's Liv Ullman's dream project, and it's taking its final shape in India. The Norwegian actress's Liv & Ingmar, a film about her stormy yet passionate relationship with Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, is in its post-production stage -- the mixing, background music, editing and sound design is being done in Mumbai at the Canaries Postsound studio.
It's a first for India as no European film project has undergone post-production work in the country before.
But the film's team, currently working at the Yashraj Studio, is being secretive about it
When contacted, Resul Pookutty, the sound designer for the film, was evasive.
He finally relented and revealed, "Yes, we're currently doing the entire post-production work of Liv Ullman's film at Yashraj. The film's director Dheeraj Akolkar and a few other technicians along with me are working on it."
Liv, we are told, is expected to arrive soon, quietly on an undisclosed date.
Pookutty added, " Liv is very fond of India.She was here about a decade ago, and she remembers every single detail of her visit including the little girl who danced for her at a function. She's definitely coming here because her most cherished dream project (Liv & Ingmar) is being edited and put together in Mumbai."
Interestingly,
Liv's film has no Indian connection except its director and sound designer. "In that sense, Liv & Ingmar is unique. A part of Slumdog Millionare's post-production was done in India. But that was a Mumbai-based film," Resul says adding, "In terms of theme, location, content and characters Liv & Ingmar is not Indian at all. The only Indian aspects of the docu-fictional film are the director and me."
Pookutty reportedly flew in all the sounds from Scandinavia.
The Oscar-winning sound designer explains, "95 percent of the incidental sounds in the film had to be recorded in Norway and Sweden. For example, there were shots of birds flying. When we tried the local bird sounds, Liv noted, 'That doesn't sound like the birds out there at all.' So we went all the way to Norway and Sweden to record all those sounds and brought them back to Mumbai."
Liv & Ingmar opens in Europe on August 26. Ironically, inspite of its Indian director and sound designer, it has not found a distributor for an Indian release.
Liv Ullman, through her visit to Mumbai, is expected to create some buzz about Ingmar Bergman's timeless classics.
Photographs: NordicStories
