Preserve celluloid for posterity
Last month, it was reported that the renowned American filmmaker Martin Scorsese will spearhead the digital restoration of Malayalam director G Aravindan’s 1979 classic Kummatty to make it available for cinema lovers across the world. Scorsese was previously instrumental in the rediscovery and restoration of as many as nine world cinema favourites directed by the legendary Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose masterworks include The Apu Trilogy. Scorsese’s The Film Foundation World Cinema Project, is collaborating with India’s Film Heritage Foundation and the Cineteca di Bologna film archive in Italy to carry out this task of restoration. The fact that it takes the intervention of a Hollywood filmmaker to steer the course of film preservation in India, might indicate how indifferent we are about the upkeep of this visual vestige of our heritage. India is home to the largest film industry globally, with as many as 10 major film sub-industries that churn out over 2,000 films a year in about 36 languages. But, when it comes to the state of film preservation, and film heritage in general, the country paints a dismal picture.
The National Film Archive of India, established under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in 1964 is the apex body concerned with the preservation and documentation of India’s rich cinematic history. In 2003, a massive fire at the NFAI’s vault housed in the premises of the FTII in Pune, destroyed 5,097 reels belonging to 607 films. Among the prints that were destroyed were the last few existing reels of India’s first silent film Raja Harishchandra, released in 1913. Subsequently in March 2019, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India made it public that 31,000 reels at the NFAI were reported lost or destroyed, when it audited records between 2015 and 2017.
According to Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, an archivist and restorer who heads the Film Heritage Foundation, just about 29 of the 1,138 silent films made in the country survive today. About 80% of the 2,000-odd films made in Mumbai between the years 1931 and 1950 are unavailable for viewing now - including India’s first talkie Alam Ara (1931) and its first colour film Kisan Kanya (1937). When it comes to Madras, as many as 124 films and 38 documentaries in the silent era were made, and only one film survives - Marthanda Verma (1931). By 1950, we had lost 70-80% of our films.
Experts believe that the reason film preservation hasn’t gotten its due in India is because of commercialisation. What has also led to the deterioration of film preservation was the speed at which digital technology had overtaken analogue systems, a development which had sounded a death knell of sorts for companies such as Kodak and Fujifilm, that manufactured state of the art film stock. The arrival of HD video, which allowed everyone to shoot their own footage had also left the developer of negative-based films in a lurch, as everybody jumped onto the digital bandwagon. Unfortunately, what we have lost in the bargain is a very credible linkage to our history built on the foundation of parallel or arthouse cinema.
While there are individual directors and archivists working in a personal capacity to ensure that historic works remain safeguarded for posterity, the Centre also seems to have woken up to this need. In 2017, the I&B ministry unveiled a film condition assessment project. Over 1.32 lakh film reels at NFAI were to be assessed and preserved for future use, as per global standards. The initiative is a precursor to the National Film Heritage Mission, a state-funded initiative for the preservation, conservation, digitisation and restoration of India’s cinematic heritage. A sum of Rs 597.41 crore has been earmarked for this project.
Cinema, like several other performing arts and crafts is part of India’s exemplary intangible heritage. And unless stakeholders put their money where their mouths are, we run the risk of losing this incredible inheritance, that thousands of artistes have poured their hearts and souls into and has been passed on to us by pioneers of this craft.