FTII and NFDC-NFAI Launch Film Preservation Workshop

India produces thousands of films each year, yet vast portions of its historical screen heritage remain vulnerable to chemical decay and format obsolescence. To address the critical shortage of trained moving-image conservators, the Film and Television Institute of India and the NFDC-National Film Archive of India opened a nine-day technical workshop in Pune running through October 15.

The intensive curriculum covers the entire restoration pipeline, spanning physical film inspection, preventive conservation, manual splicing, and paper archiving alongside digital scanning, colour grading, and sound restoration. Participants also gain direct field exposure through visits to specialised repositories, including the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute and the Reserve Bank of India Archives.

Addressing attendees at the opening ceremony, NFDC Managing Director Prakash Magdum underscored the historical lag confronting Indian cinema. Although domestic filmmaking began in 1913, institutional archiving only took root when the NFAI was formed in 1964, leaving decades of early visual material uncatalogued or lost. Overcoming this deficit requires broadening conservation beyond commercial celluloid to include institutional and documentary records.

Directed by film preservationist Aparna Subramanian, the initiative brings together commercial partners like Prasad Corporation and academic institutions to standardise preservation methods. The workshop is scheduled to conclude with a masterclass on global archival standards and a screening of the 4K-restored diploma film Eight Column Affair, presented with director Sriram Raghavan.