Government to restore 2200 films at a cost of Rs 363 crore: Anurag Thakur

PTI

New Delhi, May 5

India has embarked on the world’s largest film restoration project under which 2,200 films of different languages will be restored at a cost of Rs 363 crore, I&B Minister Anurag Thakur said on Thursday.

The restoration project now awarded is set to commence in full swing at National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Thakur said after reviewing the functioning of the organization during a visit to Pune.

The films for restoration have been shortlisted by language wise committees consisting of filmmakers, film historians, producers such as Aparna Sen, Shriram Raghavan, Anjali Menon and Vetrimaaran, an official statement said.

“National Film Heritage Mission in addition to restoration also involves the on-going preservation processes of film condition assessment, preventive conservation and digitization, with the total allocated budget of Rs 597 crore, which is one of the world’s largest film preservation missions,” the Minister said.

In the interim, the NFAI undertook restoration of 10 prestigious Satyajit Ray films which will be showcased at various International Film Festivals.

The remastered version of Ray classic ‘Pratidwandi’ has been selected by Cannes to premiere in the Cannes Classics Section later this month.

The restored version of G Aravindan’s 1978 Malayalam film Thamp will be showcased at Restoration World Premieres in Cannes by Film Heritage foundation.

Besides Satyajit Ray’s films, feature films as diverse as ‘Neelakuyil’ (Malayalam) and ‘Do Aakhein Barah Haath’ (Hindi) will also be restored.

The restoration process involves frame-to-frame digital and semi-automated manual picture and sound restoration from the best surviving source material.

The source negative/print will be scanned at 4K to .dpx files, which will be then digitally restored.

The damages including scratches, dirt and abrasions in every frame of the picture negative will be cleaned during the restoration process.

The sound is also restored in a process similar to the picture restoration procedure and involves digital removal of numerous pops, hisses, crackles and distortions on the sound negative.

After restoration, the digital picture files will be colour graded (DI process) and balanced to achieve the look of the film at the time of the original release.

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