The pangs of preservation

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage which is observed on October 27 every year, it might be pertinent to take stock of how we are pushing the agenda of conserving such artefacts in this country. The commemorative day chosen by UNESCO in 2005 was aimed at raising awareness of the significance and preservation risks of recorded sound and audiovisual documents. These include films, sound and video recordings, radio and television programmes.

To jog one’s memory, back in 2019, it was reported that over 31,000 precious reels or cans held by the National Films Archives of India (NFAI) were lost or destroyed, per the observations of a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which was contested by the NFAI. The Department of Audit and Accounts under the CAG had carried out a test check of records maintained by the Director, NFAI Pune between May 1, 2015 and Sept 30, 2017. As the report suggested, India has a poor track record with regard to the preservation of cinematic artefacts.

For instance, there are no film reels of India’s first talkie Alam Ara (1931), a much coveted title, and it has been deemed lost forever. Similarly, footage pertaining to a majority of the 1,138 silent films made between 1912 and 1931 do not exist anymore. The state-run Film and TV Institute of India (FTII) in Pune has managed to archive 29 of these films. It’s a travesty that prints and negatives of such invaluable vestiges of our cinematic heritage have been found discarded in shops, homes, basements, warehouses and even in cinema halls in south east Asia.

In fact, the original negatives of some of the most acclaimed films of India’s inimitable auteur Satyajit Ray, including The Apu Trilogy were also considered lost, until Hollywood filmmaker Martin Scorsese intervened and mobilised a like-minded group of directors to spearhead a large scale restoration of Ray’s works. Subsequently, the Film Heritage Foundation, an NGO, has taken up the mammoth task of scouting for and restoring some of long lost features, to ensure they are available for future generations.

There are several pain points, when it comes to the restoration and preservation of audiovisual heritage in India. Last year, the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said India was embarking on the world’s largest film restoration project, under the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) with a budget of Rs 363 crore. To place that in context, the recent Shah Rukh Khan film Jawan, was made at a budget of Rs 300 cr. And here we’re utilising a similar amount for recovery, digitisation and restoration of thousands of old film stocks which is a painstaking process.

Understandably, the NFAI, which is now a part of the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), has sought funds in the form of sponsorships and donations for undertaking film digitisation and restoration projects. The NFHM, launched in January 2017, plans to carry out preventive conservation of as many as 60,000 film reels held by the film archive, undertake film condition assessment of the reels, and digitise carefully prioritised 1,345 feature films and 2,768 short films, and carry out restoration of 1,145 feature and 1,108 short films. So far, 180 films are being restored while 3,700 films, including short films, are being digitised.