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While some individuals and institutions are trying their best to preserve India’s cinematic legacy, training and sensitising future generations is the next step

Why film restoration in India is still an uphill climb

From forgotten films to damaged or disappearing reels, film preservation in India faces many roadblocks while safeguarding the art form for future generations of moviegoers

In 2012, the restored version of the 1948-released film Kalpana, which iconic dancer-choreographer Uday Shankar directed, was screened as part of the ‘Classics’ section of the Cannes Film Festival. But apart from the film being restored by Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation (WCF), it’s essential to understand just how complex the restoration process was. Preservation of films include getting hold of the original reels and prints, which are often a Herculean task. But even if traced, most have fallen prey to the ravages of time and the elements, as was the case with the only known copy of Kalpana, which was damaged by decades of heat and humidity. 

Reports suggest the WCF took over three years to get hold of the film’s reel, but the restored print was stuck in customs for 25 days before it could be delivered to the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in Pune. Most of the delays can be attributed to the fact that film restoration in India was in its nascent stage then and helmed by a few people and institutions. 

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur recently hosted the ‘Hero Of Heroes’ film festival to mark the centenary celebrations of Dilip Kumar by screening some of his famous films across 20 cities in India

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur recently hosted the ‘Hero Of Heroes’ film festival to mark the centenary celebrations of Dilip Kumar by screening some of his famous films across 20 cities in India

In 2012, the restored version of the 1948-released film Kalpana, which iconic dancer-choreographer Uday Shankar directed, was screened as part of the ‘Classics’ section of the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2012, the restored version of the 1948-released film Kalpana, which iconic dancer-choreographer Uday Shankar directed, was screened as part of the ‘Classics’ section of the Cannes Film Festival.

Roadblocks in restoration

“India’s first talkie film, Alam Ara (1931), was sold for silver by the son of the producer, Ardeshir Irani. Most of the first talkies in regional languages no longer exist. By the late 1950s, we had lost 70–80 per cent of our films. This doesn’t include the many missing short films, animation films, television programmes, advertising commercials and home movies,” says Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, a filmmaker who started the not-for-profit Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) in 2014 and was instrumental in handing over the  Kalpana reel to the WCF. Dungarpur was instrumental in organising events such as the film festival ‘Bachchan: Back To The Beginning’ in October this year to mark actor Amitabh Bachchan’s 80th birthday and even partnered with the Festival des 3 Continents (an annual film festival in France) to showcase an extensive retrospective of classic Indian cinema earlier this year. He has been a frontrunner as far as film restoration and preservation is concerned in India.

 According to researcher and historian Virchand Dharamsey, who has been chronicling the history of silent cinema in India, 1338 silent films were made in India of which just 29 survive. Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra that released in 1913 only has one mile of its reel left, according to Dungarpur. In India, where Bollywood’s influence is all-pervasive, why are archival films not valued and preserved? “It is vital to safeguard our cinematic heritage—it’s a part of our history. It’s sad that filmgoers can’t watch the Dilip Kumar classic, Gunga Jumna (1961) on a big screen because no good print exists. There are many such classics that have either disappeared or deteriorated due to years of neglect,” says National Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Sriram Raghavan. 

The lack of trained archivists, the tendency to relegate cinema to a commodity meant for mass consumption and the technicalities involved are possible reasons why film restoration in India is an uphill climb. “While the extraction of silver from black-and-white films and dyes from colour films, nitrate fires, climatic conditions and neglect are attributing factors, cinema has, unfortunately, not been given its due respect,” says Dungarpur, who recently hosted the ‘Hero Of Heroes’ film festival to mark the centenary celebrations of Dilip Kumar by screening some of his famous films across 20 cities in India. While organising the festival, Dungarpur only managed to cobble together a few of Kumar’s films since the others existed in low-resolution formats unsuitable for screening.

“THE ULTIMATE AIM OF THE PRESERVATION OF OUR AUDIO-VISUAL HERITAGE IS PUBLIC ACCESS AND GIVING A SECOND LEASE OF LIFE TO CLASSIC CINEMA BY SHOWCASING IT TO A MODERN AUDIENCE.”

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

While much of the work that the Film Heritage Foundation does includes sourcing films and film memorabilia, the fact that film negatives have been found in unexpected places—including flea markets, beds, cupboards, laboratories, studios and warehouses—makes it evident that preservation is a tricky beast to tackle.  new mac

While much of the work that the Film Heritage Foundation does includes sourcing films and film memorabilia, the fact that film negatives have been found in unexpected places—including flea markets, beds, cupboards, laboratories, studios and warehouses—makes it evident that preservation is a tricky beast to tackle.

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Sourcing films

While much of the work that the FHF does includes sourcing films and film memorabilia, the fact that film negatives have been found in unexpected places—including flea markets, beds, cupboards, laboratories, studios and warehouses—makes it evident that preservation is a tricky beast to tackle. “I found the original negative of Bharosa (1963), starring Guru Dutt, in the possession of a scrap dealer. Farhan Akhtar realised that a majority of the hard disks with the digitised version of Dil Chahta Hai (2001) were corrupt; Mani Ratnam found most of the original camera negatives of his early films had either deteriorated completely or were lost. The negative of his landmark film Roja (1992), which we preserve as a reel, is in poor condition,” says Dungarpur. 

Actor Vaibhav Anand clearly remembers attending the premiere of the release of the colourised version of his uncle Dev Anand’s film Hum Dono (1961) in 2011, which his father Vijay Anand directed. “I remember my uncle being part of every step of the colourisation process. It was quite an experience to watch the coloured film on the big screen,” he recounts. The film was digitally restored and colourised using Legend 3D’s best technology, costing around a whopping ₹ 4.5 crore. “I am sure there has been some progress in both technology and know-how for film restoration in terms of how black-and-white films are not coloured at least and that the process would be easier compared to what it was previously,” he adds.

The path ahead

When master lyricist Gulzar won the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2014, Dungarpur recounts how difficult it was for people to get their hands on the negatives of the 1995 film Maachis, which Gulzar had directed, for screening. “The ultimate aim of the preservation of our audio-visual heritage is public access and giving a second lease of life to classic cinema by showcasing it to a modern audience,” says Dungarpur.

Earlier this year, ₹ 363 crore was earmarked by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to restore 2,200 films under the National Film Heritage Mission, and bodes well for film restoration in India. Meanwhile, the FHF now has a collection of 6,000 film reels (about 400 films) and a team of conservators to “inspect, clean, repair and rewind” the films. However, the future lies in imparting education on the importance of preserving the cultural heritage of cinema through workshops such as the one run by FHF in collaboration with the International Federation of Film Archives around the country since 2015, with its seventh edition concluding in December.

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