Restoring splendour to classics lost in the mists of time

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, a filmmaker, producer and the founder of Dungarpur films, is spearheading a movement to protect India's cinematic heritage. He speaks to Pratik Ghosh about his latest initiative — a school to teach students about the art and craft of restoration and preservation.

What made you decide to conduct the Film Preservation & Restoration School in India?

After collaborating with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation on the restoration of Uday Shankar’s Kalpana and the Sri Lanka film Nidhanaya, I realised that no full-fledged world class film restorations were being done in India. Given our singular cinematic legacy, I felt that it was imperative that we build an indigenous resource of film archivists and restorers who could work towards saving India’s cinematic heritage so that we do not need to look for help outside our country any longer. Film Preservation and Restoration School is a pioneering initiative of Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and L’Immagine Ritrovata that is scheduled to take place from February 22 – 28, 2015 at Films Division, Mumbai. 
The Film Foundation board includes renowned filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola. The Cineteca di Bologna is an acclaimed film archive and L’Immagine Ritrovata is a state-of-the-art laboratory recognized as a leader in the field of film restoration. 
At the school, participants will be given hands-on training in the latest techniques of film preservation and restoration by some of the leading international experts in the field. Applications form will be available at the website http://filmheritagefoundation.co.in/ from September 15, 2014

Why did you start Film Heritage Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation?

Film archiving, preservation and restoration has been severely neglected in our country as a result of which India has lost a large part of its cinematic heritage and will continue to do so if urgent steps are not taken to protect our film legacy. For a country that currently produces the largest number of films in the world — over 1,700 films a year in 32 languages, our record of film archiving and preservation is abysmal. 
India made 1,700 silent films of which only 5-6 complete films survive today. By 1950 we had lost 70-80% of our films including India’s first talkie Alam Ara. Even though India celebrated 100 years of cinema in 2013, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) can boast just about 6,000 Indian film titles in their collection. We have also failed to restore what little we have preserved of our cinematic legacy. The fact is that no full-fledged film restorations have been done in India to date. Classic films like Uday Shankar’s Kalpana (1948) and Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) have been restored by experts overseas.

What are the aims of Film Heritage Foundation?

We believe that the moving image is an art form that is as integral a part of our social and cultural heritage as it is a reflection of who we are and the times we live in. Recognising the urgent need to preserve India’s cinematic heritage, Film Heritage Foundation is dedicated to supporting the conservation, preservation and restoration of the moving image and to develop interdisciplinary educational programs that will use film as an educational tool and create awareness about the language of cinema.