NFAI to support State Govts for safeguarding country’s cinematic heritage

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is exploring possibilities of extending financial and technical support to State Governments in their endeavour to safeguard the country’s filmic heritage. The objective of preserving the country’s cinematic heritage has to be achieved in collaboration with the State Governments, said Ajay Mittal, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Government of India. He was speaking on the sidelines of a High Level Committee meeting on National Film Heritage Mission, held in NFAI Pune.

Speaking on the occasion, Mittal said that the High Level Committee had reviewed the progress of the National Film Heritage Mission and taken some major decisions to expand the horizons of the same. The mission would ensure not only the preservation of filmic heritage, but also its dissemination and access to the last mile. This would enable awareness amongst youth and children about our rich cultural heritage.

Appreciating the efforts of officers at NFAI in implementing the Mission, Mittal said that all necessary steps were being undertaken to involve international organisations and institutions to ensure project’s implementation as per global standards. He further added that NFAI’s facilities would be augmented by creating new state of the art vaults in its premises.

Speaking about the need of enhancing research on Indian cinema, Mittal said, “The Government is exploring the possibility of extending NFAI’s research fellowship to the University level through formal institutional mechanisms. NFAI would reach out to major Universities for short and long term courses in the area of film studies incorporating subject of film archiving and preservation. This would ensure building of skilled manpower in the niche area of film preservation.”

The High Level Committee meeting was attended by senior officers of MIB, which included Subhash Sharma, AS&FA; Sanjay Murthy, Joint Secretary; Mukesh Sharma, DG Films Division; Prakash Magdum, Director – NFAI; Santosh Ajmera, Officer on special duty, NFHM, along with film-makers Jahnu Barua and Rajeev Mehrotra. The meeting was chaired by Ajay Mittal.

National Film Heritage Mission is the prestigious project of Government of India for digitisation, restoration, preservation and conservation of India’s rich filmic heritage. The mission has budgetary outlay of Rs 597.41 crore and is to be implemented till 2021. National Film Archive of India is the implementing agency for the mission. The High Level Committee chaired by Secretary I&B has been mandated to oversee project’s implementation as per envisaged objectives of the Mission.