World's largest film restoration project commences in India for Rs 363 crore

NEW DELHI: After years of efforts, India moved with an earmarked budget allocation for the world’s largest film restoration project under National Film Heritage Mission. The restoration project now awarded would commence at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) to achieve the goal.

Sharing this on Thursday, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said that a hefty budget of Rs 363 crore has been allotted to take up the world’s largest film restoration project under the National Film Heritage Mission by the ministry. Thakur detailed that about 2200 Indian films would undergo restoration under the National Film Heritage Mission.

“The titles of films have already been shortlisted language-wise by committees consisting of filmmakers, documentary filmmakers, film historians and producers for their restorations”, Thakur informed the media. Besides this, he said that the National Film Heritage Mission also is also handling the ongoing preservation processes of film condition assessment, preventive conservation and digitization with a total allocated budget of Rs 597 crores. This is one of the world’s largest film preservation missions.

Spelling out the importance of the restoration project of nearly 2200 films, the minister said that the restoration of Indian films will once again give a chance to the current and future generations to relive the glory of old evergreen old Indian films, which had once enamoured the audiences for decades globally.

Meanwhile, the official statement added further that NFAI has undertaken the restoration of 10 prestigious films by Satyajit Ray, which will be shown subsequently at various International Film Festivals. “Of which, Pratidwandi has been selected by Cannes to premiere in the Cannes Classics Section of 2022 edition. Restored version of G.Aravindan’s 1978 Malayalam film Thampi will be shown at Restoration World Premieres in Cannes by Film Heritage foundation”, official sources added. The minister also added that another feature films like ‘Neelakuyil’ (Malayalam) and ‘Do Aakhein Barah Haath’ (Hindi) will also be restored.

“Not only these films, but also very important shorts documentaries from the collection of NFAI, films division and other rare materials, including pre-independence of times would be restored to provide a holistic view of India it had captured to the new generation”, the minister said. The sound of all the 2200 films would also be restored using hi-technology by removing numerous pops, hisses, crackles and distortions on the sound negative digitally. After restoration, all the films would be well preserved digitally.