To commemorate the 1982 Oscar winner, Sony Picture is issuing “Gandhi: 25th Anniversary Collector’s Edition,” on DVD February 13, 2006.
The acclaimed film and international box office hit, was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning eight, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Sir Ben Kingsley), and Best Director (Richard Attenborough). It’s available for the first time in a two-disc collector’s set with extensive new bonus materials.
The extras include more than 90 minutes of new material, including interviews with director Attenborough; actors Geraldine James, Saeed Jaffrey, and Edward Fox; Diana Hawkins (Director of Publicity), Terry Clegg (Executive in charge of production), Billy Williams (Cinematographer) and Stuart Craig (Production Designer).
The DVD includes a Director’s commentary with Attenborough, who also made a personal introduction to the film. The featurettes include In Search of Gandhi, Reflections on Ben, Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad, The Funeral, Shooting an Epic In India, Looking Back, Designing Gandhi (3 mini featurettes) and From the Director’s Chair (2 mini featurettes).
“Gandhi” is a story about activism, politics, religious tolerance and freedom, depicting the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi, the Indian political leader who managed to free his country from the British rule using peaceful means and thus giving hope and inspiration for generations to come.
In addition to four time Oscar nominee Kingsley (Schindler’s List, Sexy Beast), the cast includes Edward Fox (A Passage to India), Roshan Seth (A Passage to India), Oscar nominee Candice Bergen (Best Supporting Actress, Starting Over, 1980; TV’s “Murphy Brown,” “Boston Legal”), Oscar winner Sir John Gielgud (Best Supporting Actor, Arthur, 1981), Oscar nominee Trevor Howard (Best Actor, Sons and Lovers, 1960) and Martin Sheen (The Departed, TV’s “The West Wing”).
DVD Special Features:
* In Search of Gandhi Featurette: Attenborough discusses the various hurdles he faced in getting the film made, from the genesis of the project in the ’60s through to the start of production.
* Reflections on Ben Featurette: Cast and crew reflect on Ben Kinsley as he prepared for the role and memories of him during production.
* Madeleine Slade: An Englishwoman Abroad Featurette: Attenborough and Geraldine James discuss Madeleine Slade (Meerabahen), who became one of Gandhi’s most committed followers
* The Funeral Featurette: Cast and crew discuss the recreation and filming of Gandhi’s Funeral. This scene holds the record for containing more extras than any other in film history (in excess of 250,000 people!).
* Shooting an Epic in India Featurette: Cast and crew discuss working in India and the challenges they faced as the production progressed.
* Looking Back Featurette: Cast and crew look back at the film. This featurette includes material about the success of the film, the impact it had on release and the Academy Award ceremony.
* Designing Gandhi, 3 mini featurettes: Stuart Craig talks about three different elements of Set & Design, Building the Ashram, The Tent, Finding Trains
* From the Director’s Chair – 2 mini featurettes: Attenborough shares his views on two areas of the production, Casting and Music
* Ben Kingsley Talks About Gandhi – Featurette
* Four Vintage Newsreel Shorts
* The Making of Gandhi: A photo montage of behind-the-scenes stills
* Digitally Remastered Audio and Video
* Online Content Syndication
* Audio: English, Portuguese, Spanish
* Subtitles: English, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish
Gandhi Deluxe Edition has a run time of 188 minutes and is rated PG.
