Announcing the Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop 2019 in Hyderabad, actors Nagarjuna and Amala underline the importance of film preservation

Hyderabad is home to one of the largest film industries in India. But how many of the old film negatives or contemporary films shot in digital mode, are being preserved for posterity? “My father (Akkineni Nageswara Rao) acted in more than 200 films but many of his films have not been preserved. I have acted in more than 90 films and realised that none of them have also been preserved well,” says Akkineni Nagarjuna, speaking on the sidelines of the announcement of the week-long Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop to be held in December in Hyderabad.

The actor admits that he wasn’t aware of film preservation methods, not only of the older ones shot on film negatives, also of the fickle nature of digital data, “We assume that since digital data is safe since it’s stored on hard disks, but we risk losing it if there’s a virus attack or a hard disk crash. Digital data needs upgradation to keep pace with technological advancements. We have lost all records of silent films and the earliest Telugu talkie. I’ve heard my father talk about silent films and how there would be narrators as the films were screened. We can at least do something to preserve what we have.”

Making preservation and conservation of film and allied material possible is the Film Heritage Foundation (FHF), founded by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. From December 8 to 15, the FHF in partnership with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation (TFF), the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), Viacom18 and Tata Trusts, will conduct a workshop in Hyderabad. The faculty will include film conservation and archival experts from institutes across the world.

The workshop will be held at Annapurna Studios in classrooms of the Annapurna International School of Film and Media (AISFM). Extending her support, Amala Akkineni, the director of the institute added, “We look forward to hosting the hands-on sessions during the week-long workshop in 20 of our classrooms.”

In its previous editions, the film restoration workshops have been held in Pune, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur recalled how Mani Ratnam entrusted the FHF to preserve all his recent films. “But sadly, his films from the 80s and even Roja are in bad shape,” he shares.

Leading up to the announcement of the workshop, Shivendra had been in touch with directors, studios, producers and film labs in Hyderabad. Amitabh Bachchan, who is a strong support to FHF, sent out a video message to the Telugu film fraternity urging their support to preserve cinema.

The FHF’s workshop in Mumbai had the support of director Christopher Nolan and a one-of-its-kind round table featuring some of the most prominent members of Hindi cinema, to discuss film preservation. Taking a cue, Nagarjuna stated that he is keen to have a similar round table in Hyderabad.

The event witnessed the support of Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD, Viacom18 and Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana.

Applications for the workshop will be available from August 25, on www. filmheritagefoundation.co.in and fiafnet.org.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Entertainment> Movies / by Sangeetha Devi Dundoo / August 22nd, 2019