I&B Ministry committed to safeguard filmic heritage: Mittal

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is committed to safeguarding the country's filmic and non-filmic heritage and is taking all necessary steps to preserve films and non-filmic material for posterity as per global standards, its secretary Ajay Mittal said today.
Mittal was speaking on the occasion of the launch of Film Condition Assessment, which is the first phase of implementation of National Film Heritage Mission, NFHM.
NFHM is the Centre's prestigious mission for preservation, conservation, digitisation and restoration of rich cinematic heritage of the country, an official release said.
National Film Archive of India (NFAI) is the nodal organisation for the implementation of this project. Rs 597.41 crore has been allotted towards implementation of the project, which was kick-started with launch of the first phase of the mission, Film Condition Assessment, it added.

"This is a one-of-its-kind project in the world, wherein the government is spending huge amount of money towards the aspect of film preservation, in order to make rich filmic heritage available for the future generations to come.
"The condition of about 1,32,000 film reels at NFAI would be assessed and necessary measures would be taken to prolong their life. Each film reel will be tracked and monitored through RFID tagging, during the first phase", Mittal added.
The Secretary also launched NFAI's initiative of digitisation of non-filmic material.
"This is a step in the direction of government's Digital India initiative, wherein non-filmic heritage of the country would be digitised, restored and made available to the people at large," he added.