Plans to restore and digitise the 2,200 reels of film, which had been forgotten and stacked away.
As a large consignment of reels reached the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) on January 6, NFAI director Vijay Jadhav knew this was unlike any other film consignment.
The consignment consisted of 2,200 reels of rare and historical footage of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru dating from 1934 till the time of his death, which were lying at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) in Delhi. Apparently NMML was clueless about what the reels contained and had stacked them away. The footage has now found its way to the NFAI for digitisation and restoration.
“When I visited NMML, they mentioned that they have a lot of reels lying unattended. I then asked them to have them dispatched to us. The required government formalities with the Union ministry of culture were completed in the meantime,” said Jadhav. The material consists of sound negatives, film prints of 8mm, 16mm and 35mm.
Reliance Media Works, a film and entertainment services company under the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group will be digitising and restoring these reels. The reels will undergo physical cleaning as well as chemical cleaning to get rid of secretions like vinegar. Ultrasonic waves will be used to further loosen the unwanted dust and the reels will finally be scanned frame by frame at a high resolution.
The digitisation of the reels will be done over the next three months whereas restoration will take much longer. “There is footage related to various Congress sessions and pre-independence events. Majority of this footage is from the British Information Films Ltd, which was converted into the Films Division after Independence,” said Jadhav.
The Union ministry of culture has allocated a budget of Rs2.5 crore for the project, informed Jadhav. More funds are expected to be released as the project requires during later stages.
However, what has the team at NFAI excited is that the restoration could throw some surprises. Along with rare footage of Nehru, footage of others who were with him in the Independence struggle could also be part of the reels. Once digitised, one copy of the footage will be sent to the NMML and the other copy will be retained at the NFAI for film and history scholars.
Jadhav said, “Once some of the footage is restored, we are planning to have a public screening.”
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