THE country’s first indigenous feature film-Raja Harishchandra-is lying in a vault in the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) in Pune for years. The Union government has decided to clear the setting up of a National Film Heritage Mission soon. Many rare films along with Raja Harishchandra will soon be restored, digitized and made available in the market in DVDs. It may be mentioned that even some of Satyajit Ray’s earlier films need to be restored. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry’s proposal to set up the Heritage Mission will soon be put up to the Union Cabinet and it will be set up at a cost of Rs. 597 crore. Thirty new vaults of the National Film Archives will be created and Rs. 30 crore would be spent to construct these thirty new ‘temperature and humidity’ controlled vaults. The NFAI will execute the project.
The first need is to create proper storage facilities. Restoration techniques to digitize and clean up the rare and old prints have to be introduced. Professionals have to be put in charge of assessing which films need to be preserved on a priority basis. A Project Director will be appointed having expertise in film restoration and preservation. A Committee will decide on prioritization. The government plans to monetize the project by making the restored films available for cineastes through DVDs or web-downloads. These restored prints will also be accessible for research on cinematography. The importance attached to the film industry appears to be justified with the biopic on Mary Com to be premiered at a Canadian Film Festival on September 5.
