Amid the glamour and buzz over world cinema at the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival, India's last bioscopewala Mohammad Salim was honoured at the fest on Saturday for keeping the tradition of travelling movie shows alive for 40 years through the original hand-held projector.
Mohammad Salim exhibited his bioscope to moviegoers on Friday at the Nandan complex during the just-concluded festival. He was given a cash prize of Rs.51,000 by the West Bengal government for his contribution to furthering Indian cinema.
As curious spectators ringed around the salt-and-pepper haired Salim, he narrated his journey with the device when took over the business of conducting movie shows from his father, at a young age.
Despite the mushrooming of multiplexes with surround sound, Salim said: "People still come back to my bioscopes to get a feel of the hand-operated projector."
Salim also improvises and innovates his shows by incorporating MP3 sounds with the 5-7 minute-long films he screens.
