Efforts on to collect film negatives from studios
Kerala State Film Development Corporation Ltd (KSFDC) home page.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Centre’s Rs 600 crores National Film Heritage Mission, which aims at restoring the rich heritage of Indian cinema, has come to rescue the legacy of the Malayalam film industry. The ministry of broadcasting and information has written a letter to the Kerala Chalachitra Academy informing it about a novel initiative which aims at archiving and digitising movies for the benefit of future generations. Currently, students who are researching movies depend on the facility in Pune. Once the project starts rolling out, students would be able to access a wide swathe of film footage.
The Kerala State Film Development Corporation Ltd (KSFDC) has already initiated efforts to gather the negatives of Malayalam movies from its inception. Leading studios in Chennai including Gemini and Prashanth studios have summoned the producers of several movies to collect the negative reels of the movies that are facing ruin.
“We all received intimations from the studios to take back the negative of the movies. It’s the digital era and studios want to get rid of old negative reels that are facing ruin. Around 4,000 films are lying in various studios and by next month we will start moving the reels from various studios to the Chith-ranjali studio, where an archive is being set up to store the reels,” said G. Suresh Kumar, president of Kerala Film Producers Association. He said that over 50 per cent of the movies have to be restored. “Resto-ring is a costly affair and we are hoping to complete the procedure over five years,” added Mr Suresh Kumar.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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