NFAI pitches for amending Cinematograph Act

The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) is mulling to amend the present Cinematograph Act with a view to preserve and restore the regional cinema.

The agency has also plans to associate with universities to start a component of film preservation in the curriculum of film studies.

"Efforts are on to amend the Cinematograph Act to make it mandatory that one copy of the print of every film should be given for preservation," NFAI Director Prakash Magdum said here in a stakeholder meeting for the Film Heritage Mission convened by the agency on Friday.

"Out of the 565 films digitalised by the NFAI, about 300 have been restored in 2 K standards," he said adding that the NFAI also resumed the facility of research on film studies, which can be availed from any part of the country.

Magdum also offered all help to the states for the preservation and restoration of regional cinema.

He said the NFAI would extend all possible assistance, including technical help to establish state of the art facilities for this at the regional level.

The series of consultation meetings, being held in various parts of the country, would help NFAI in creating the future road map and adopting best practices from the industry so as to implement the mission as per global standards, he said.

The director also appealed to film buffs to help trace and acquire rare film footage and other materials like film posters, song booklets, still photographs and so on, to preserve them for posterity.

The government had allocated about Rs 600 crore for the project, he said.

As part of the on-going consultations with the stakeholders of film industry, the next round of meetings would be held in Hyderabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and Delhi. The NFAI had already completed such meetings in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

The film fraternity in Kerala offered full cooperation for the accomplishing of the National Film Heritage Mission, aimed at preventive conservation of film reels, digitisation, restoration and preservation of about one thousand feature films and one thousand short films in a period of five years.

Eminent filmmakers, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, K R Mohanan, Shyama Prasad and representatives of Kerala State Film Development Corporation, Chalachithra Academy, Kerala Film Chamber and noted film historians participated in the deliberations.