http://www.naachgaana.com/2009/07/01/rare-films-are-being-preserved-sl...y-but-s
By now, all one can do is rue the fact that some of India’s most
spectacular and notable films from the silent era and even in the
years after are lost forever. With many old film studios defunct by
now and producers not having the original prints of their old films,
we are probably doomed to not having a recorded history of film at
all.
However, the Pune-based National Film Archive of India (NFAI) is
trying to change this dismal state of affairs, and is working on
preserving at least the films it has in its libraries in the digitised
format before they are lost forever. “Some of the films we have in our
archives are in such a bad condition, they are like patients in a
hospital ICU,” says Vijay Jadhav, NFAI director and project head. “We
decided to invite tenders for digitising the about 20,000 films that
we have in our archives, because digital prints will last much longer
and who knows, there may be no cinema projectors or even films in the
future,” he muses.
The first phase will see the digitisation of about 1,000 Marathi and
Hindi films made in the 1920s to 1950s. “Most of them are silent
films. We have completed the process for 10 of these films, and are
waiting to show them to our technical committee. It is a slow process
and much depends on the condition of the film,” avers Jadhav. The
process involves generating the films in LTO4 format, and the final
product is transferred to tape drives. The advantage of tape drives is
that they are cost-effective, do not require constant power supply to
run and take up less space. “First, the film is scanned to a hard
disk, after which any colour or physical corrections are done. The
film is later transferred using the LTO4 technology. The film can then
be further converted to DVD or tape or another format based on the
medium that will be used to play it. Each restored film would take up
about 2.5 terrabytes of memory,” informs Jadhav, adding that since
NFAI is aiming to preserve the prints for archiving purposes, the
restoration becomes more expensive and costs about Rs 8 lakh per film.
The NFAI decided to digitise its sizeable collection of Indian and
foreign films so that they could be available to the general public
also. “The films are all classics. They have been lying in our
archives for decades now. When people request certain prints for
screening in film festivals or for study, we are unable to meet
several requests as the prints are in a fragile condition,” explains
Jadhav.
Meanwhile, the NFAI is looking for film prints, posters, costumes used
on set, press clippings and even publicity folders of old films in
original format, available with the public. “We have National Award
winners and entrants, since they have to sign an undertaking stating
that one print of their film will be sent to the NFAI. However, there
are other films that are not winners but which are good films and need
to be preserved, and many collectors or organizations have them. We
have sent out an appeal to people that they should send us the
original memorabilia that they have so that we can preserve it well.
The copyright of each donation will remain with the donor,” mentions
Jadhav.
Despite the appeal, he admitted, donations of any kind were “very
rare” thus far.
--
Bruce Calvert
Visit the Silent Film Still Archive
http://www.silentfilmstillarchive.com 
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