Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born on 16th April 1889 and died on 25th December 1977.
1989 was his birth Centenary and the West Bengal Government decided to celebrate the event. They formed a committee with Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen at the helm.
The committee decided that they would start a ten day festival, starting 16th. April at Nandan, with the screening of Chaplin Films and mount an Exhibition.
The problem was to acquire materials for the exhibition like Stills from Chaplin Films, Posters, Lobby Cards etc.
Satyajit Ray remembered seeing an Original Chaplin Poster at my home when he had visited my father but my father had long gone. So he got in touch with his dear brined Shatul, R P Gupta, who was close to my family to get in touch with me to source material.
Shatul Kaku got in touch with me and I rose to the occasion to provide whatever we had on Chaplin. Posters, Stills and Booklets. I wanted to hand over the originals but Shatul Kaku said that I should make copies and hand over as he was not ready to vouch for their safe keeping and return.
Thus I rummaged round our home library and found a huge amount of materials which were photographed and handed over.
The exhibition had all the materials neatly mounted in elephantine size with details.
Later, I was keen to hand over the collection to Nandan for a permanent display which did not mature.
My idea for a permanent exhibition did mature with MOMA. Museum of Modern Arts, New York, where it is presently housed.
