Press Release issued: 3 August 2010
Glasgow is to host a film-first today - a special screening of the first 'Bollywood' film on DVD to be accessible to audiences across the world with sight loss.
'Veer', a historical epic starring Salman Khan and Mithun Chakraborty, will be screened to invited guests at an event in the city's Spice Garden restaurant.
The film will incorporate an audio-description service in the Hindi language.
Audio description allows blind and partially sighted people to enjoy films and television by means of a voice-over describing expressions, body language and scenery to explain the story through sound.
The facility is delivered in cinemas through a headset provided when you collect your ticket, so is undetectable to the rest of the audience. Currently, over 30 cinemas in Scotland offer audio-description, four of which are in Glasgow.
Whereas mainstream Hollywood DVDs have been released with audio-description here since 2006, these are restricted to the UK market (region 2 format). 'Veer' is the first ever DVD with audio-description to be made available world-wide in all regional formats.
Eros International, the film's distributer, has worked with the Royal National Institute of Blind People to produce the facility for the 'Veer' DVD. The charity has lead on many projects to improve access to TV and film for people with sight loss.
RNIB Scotland development officer Gozie Joe Adigwe said: "Guests at today's screening will be invited to comment about the audio-description service. This feedback will help RNIB work with some of the biggest Bollywood production companies to improve their services for people with sight loss from South Asia.
"Bollywood studios produce the largest number of films in the world. Last year, Indian films generated £16m at the UK box office and the market, though niche, is an important and growing one."
After today's screening, RNIB will also highlight the eye-health work it is doing with Glasgow's ethnic minority communities. People of South Asian origin are six times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes, a major cause of sight loss, while some forms of glaucoma are more than three times more prevalent and often more severe.
Glasgow MSP Robert Brown, chair of the Scottish Parliament's cross party group on visual impairment, will be among the guests at the premiere. "It's very good news that RNIB is extending its excellent work on audio-description to meet the needs of different groups in the community, and I'd like to congratulate them," he said.
"It also gives an opportunity to put across a message on the vital importance of getting your eyes checked regularly as a means of detecting any problems early on."