A project worth Rs 660 crore for implementing the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM), a brain child of Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, has been approved by the government, sources in the Ministry told Deccan Herald.
The project will also undertake digitisation of 1000 feature films and about 2000 shots of Indian cinema. Picture and sound of landmark documentary films will also be restored.
The purpose of the mission is to restore and preserve such films that have no ownership or where the owners do not have the means to restore and preserve the same.
Those films which have historical value, both documentary and feature films, will be restored apart from the films of cultural value that became classics over time. Besides this, all national award winning films as well as those of aesthetic value like “Mother India” and “Mughal-e-Azam”, which have been recognised by film historians and general public, will also be restored, sources said.
The mission would also seek to undertake acquisition of films and film footage which pertains to India and is of relevance to the history of the country.
“For instance, the BBC archives has films that are of value to Indian history, copies of which should be acquired and preserved in India to maintain a comprehensive audio-video record of the nation,” sources added.
National Film Development Corporation will be the implementing agency for the NFHM.
In view of the dust and heat in plains tending to exacerbate the already critical challenge of preserving celluloid, there are proposals for construction of vaults to preserve the restored films in northern regions of the country like Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh where humidity, dust and temperature are comparatively much lower.
The assets created under the programme would remain with the government which may also exploit it in national and international market for revenue generation.
A large portion of the Indian film heritage is already lost and there is at present no facility in India that has the technical standards to preserve the films. Almost 1300 silent films were made in India between 1913 and 1931. Of those, less than dozen now survive.