The Information & Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur last Saturday reviewed the progress made under the National Film Heritage Mission at National Film Archive of India. NFHM is tasked with preservation and digital restoration of heritage Indian films, in a bid to make them available to audiences worldwide.
“National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) is moving ahead at full steam at NFDC-National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Pune. As part of NFHM, 3 major projects are ongoing at NFDC-NFAI. This includes digitisation of Films, conservation of Film Reels and restoration of Films,” an official statement added.
Till date, 1,293 features and 1,062 shorts & documentaries have been digitized in 4K and 2K resolution. Additional 2,500 features and shorts & documentaries are in the pipeline to be digitized, the statement added.
In addition, conservation works on 1,433 celluloid reels have been completed. “This has been done painstakingly with utmost care, in collaboration with an International Agency, L’immagine Ritrovata, world’s foremost expert in film conservation. Hundreds of more films will be conserved in coming months, and in quite a few cases, these reels might be the only surviving copies of certain rare Indian films,” the Ministry added.
NFDC-NFAI has recently commenced the digital restoration of 21 films. In the next 3 years,many more features, short films and documentaries, will be digitally restored, the statement added.