“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,” said Shri Ajay Mittal, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry. He 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 here today at Pune.
Elaborating further, Shri Mittal said, “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”.
On the sidelines of the occasion, Shri Mittal also launched NFAI’s initiative of digitization of non-filmic material. Secretary said, “this is a step in the direction of Government’s Digital India initiative, wherein non-filmic heritage of the country would be digitized, restored and made available to the people at large”. NFAI has been the custodian of a large number of film ancillary material like posters, photos, song booklets, pamphlets, press clippings, slides / transparencies, glass negatives etc, which would be digitized and restored during the process.
NFHM is the prestigious mission of Government of India, for preservation, conservation, digitization and restoration of rich cinematic heritage of the country. National Film Archive of India (NFAI) is the nodal organization 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.