Seagull post-production filmscripts:

There was no tradition of serious cinema publishing in this country, and certainly no initiative to document the contemporary experimental, alternative cinema that was flourishing in the 70s. In the years before video, in a country with few archival reference opportunities, studying serious cinema directly and closely was almost impossible. For students of cinema, and for our cultural heritage in general, this was a major lacuna in documentation. Seagull published this country's first and only post-production filmscripts, reconstructing the films shot by shot, in close conjunction with the director, from the shooting script and the final edited version. These filmscripts remain as enduring documents of a rich and important tradition of serious filmmaking in India. They include major films by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shyam Benegal and Jabbar Patel.

Sergei Eisenstein

Seagull negotiated for the world rights to a whole series of previously unpublished texts by Sergei Eisenstein, which they published, creating a unique situation-a 'third world' small press with the ability to originate international titles.

The tale of the Eisenstein connection is exemplary of how Seagull has wished to function within the arts. When our first filmscript, In Search of Famine by Mrinal Sen, was published-an excitng moment for director and publisher, as this was a pioneering event -he sent a copy to his friend Jay Leyda, senior Eisenstein scholar, a protege and student of Eisenstein, who was responsible for making Eisenstein's writings available to the world beyond the Soviet Union. Leyda responded with enthusiasm to the quality of the production and offered Seagull, out of appreciation, the first of a series of previously unpublished works by Eisenstein. That appreciation should come from within the arts community, in recognition of a genuine achievement, that this should result in further interaction and collaboration and lead to dissemination: this was a perfect example of the way Seagull perceived its function and role within the arts community.

Subsequently, Seagull has continued its initiative in this area by publishing the diaries of Andrey Tarkovsky, the memoirs of Eisenstein, and filmscripts by Krzysztof Zanussi and Reinhard Hauff; a volume of cinema writings by Pudovkin is in the pipeline.

New Indian Playwrights Series:

In a country divided by language, regional traditions and cultural variations, promoting cultural interaction across differences becomes all the more important. In the field of theatre, there was a major gap of knowledge of one another's theatre tradition between the different states. In order to bridge this gap, translation was perceived as important translation into a link language common to most states, i.e. English, accepted by the south and the north as a practical compromise to enable communication. Unfortunately, most existing translations from regional languages into English were shoddy, careless and quickly tossed-off exercises in which faithfulness to the original was not a priority.

Responding to this situation, and the lack of familiarity with playwriting traditions between the different states, Seagull conceived a translation and publication programme for contemporary playwriting. The project was to carefully and systematically undertake translations of contemporary plays by playwrights in different regional languages. The translations would go through three stages: first, the playwright and the translator would work together; second, the translation would be thoroughly counterchecked by a third consultant and the Seagull editorial team; and finally it would go back to the playwright for final approval. The result was a publication programme of contemporary playscripts, offering reliable translations, each volume comprehensively introduced and annotated, with production histories of the plays. This is an ongoing series and several translations are in the pipeline. Regional languages from which plays have been translated include Bengali, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam, Kannada and Manipuri.

This is the first time such a sustained publication programme has been undertaken in an attempt to systematically disseminate post-independence playwriting in this country. Scholars and students benefit from the availability of these texts, both within the country and abroad. Theatre practitioners have for the first time found access to plays in other regional languages; once they familiarize themselves with a play, or the work of a playwright, they usually translate directly from the language of origin into their own, using our English translation as a reference.

Another valuable aspect of this series is the fact that Seagull has chosen to cover playwrights in a systematic and comprehensive manner, rather than do one-off plays as other publishers in this country do. We provide access to a whole body of work; this helps the student and scholar in their research and criticism, eventually feeding back into the critical discourse that can only enrich theatre practice and scholarship in this country.