NEW DELHI, Mar 12:
Information and Broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur has said that nearly 1,300 feature and 1,062 short films and documentaries have been digitised under the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM).
Thakur, who reviewed the progress made under the Mission during his visit to the National Film Archives of India in Pune on Saturday, said an additional 2,500 feature and shorts films and documentaries were in the pipeline to be digitized.
Till date, 1,293 feature and 1,062 shorts and documentaries have been digitized in 4K and 2K resolution, an official statement said.
It said conservation works on 1,433 celluloid reels have been completed in collaboration with an International Agency, L’immagine Ritrovata, the world’s foremost expert in film conservation. NFHM is giving a new lifeline to the heritage of Indian cinema, where many films which were not previously accessible at all, will be made available to audience worldwide in the best quality available, while simultaneously ensuring the long term preservation of Indian Cinema for the next 100 years and more, Thakur said. As part of NFHM, three major projects are ongoing at the Pune-based NFDC-NFAI – digitization of films, conservation of film reels and restoration of films.
All these projects are colossal in nature in the field of film preservation and have never been attempted on this scale globally, the statement said.
Thakur toured the newly set up film conservation lab at the premises of NFDC-NFAI where the conservation works on celluloid reels are taking place.
Hundreds of more films will be conserved in the coming months, and in quite a few cases, these reels might be the only surviving copies of certain rare Indian films, the official statement said. NFDC-NFAI recently also commenced the restoration project, as 21 films are undergoing digital restoration. In the next three years, numerous features, short films and documentaries, will be digitally restored, it said. (PTI)
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