1,110 Films, Reels Rotting Away in NFAI, Never to be Watched Again

The NFAI in Pune has more that 1,100 films contained in 14,950 reels, rotting inside 1,202 gunny bags.

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The National Film Archive of India in Pune has more that 1,100 films contained in 14,950 reels, rotting inside 1,202 gunny bags that can never be viewed again, Indian Express reported.

In a reply to an RTI accessed by the daily, it was revealed that 17, 595 such reels were found in gunny bag, out of which only 2,645 were found to be in “runnable conditions”. Even the reels that were in working conditions were dumped in gunny bags for several months before being store in temperature controlled rooms.

These reels don’t have a proper record of their titles, but director of NFAI, Prakash Magdum, claimed otherwise.

These film reels were assessed, segregated and securely packed after rigorous in-house assessment activity of nearly three months in 2015. The titles thus have been identified, with multiple copies, in some cases almost 10 to 12 copies of a film. The material in good condition has been identified and put in plastic cans and stored.

Prakash Magdum, director of NFAI.

But, in September 2016, only 3,000 reels had multiple copies.

Moreover, the preservation of reels wasn’t discussed in any of the five meetings conducted by the high-level committee headed by the Secretary of the I&B Ministry.

It is not just reels that has been badly preserved by the NFAI. Posters, film scripts, and newspaper clippings have been tied in bundles and are gathering dust.

However, Magnum maintained that some of the archived paper has become brittle not because of being kept in a poor condition but because of the aged material.

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