Pune: The first phase of the Rs 597 crore National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) aimed at preservation and safeguarding of the countrys cinematic and non-cinematic heritage was launched here on Saturday.
The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) is the nodal agency for NFHM which will digitise and restore rich cinematic and non-cinematic heritage of the country.
“This is a one-of-its-kind project in the world, wherein the government is spending huge amount of money towards film preservation for future generations,” said Ajay Mittal, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry at the launch of the ‘Film Condition Assessment’, the first phase of NFHM.
“The condition of about 1,32,000 film reels at the NFAI would be assessed and necessary measures taken to prolong their shelf life. Each film reel will be tracked and monitored through RFID (Radio-Frequency ID) tagging, during the first phase,” said Mittal.
“This is a step towards Digital India initiative, wherein non-cinematic heritage will be digitised and restored and made available to the people at large,” he said.
The NFAI is the custodian of a large number of film ancillary material like posters, photos, song booklets, pamphlets, press clippings, slides/transparencies, glass negatives etc., which need to be digitised and/or restored during the process.
IANS