Railway routes prints to national film archives

MUMBAI: Aamir Khan's Raakh, a film that won three National Awards in 1989, would've been lost forever had it not been for the Railways. Languishing among Railway lost property, the film's print was sent to the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) which restored and digitised it. Director Aditya Bhattacharya later made a copy of the same from the NFAI.
But Shyam Benegal's Trikaal (1985), Leela Naidu's comeback vehicle, was not so lucky.
NFAI has received about 500 to 600 cans of films from the Railways lost property department including Chandni Bar, Betaabi, Bhoot, Daag, Swades, Chalte Chalte, and Lagaan. While producers do have negatives or digital copies of many, some like Raakh are saved only by NFAI archiving.
NFAI director Prashant Pathrabe said, "We get feature films and documentaries every few years, mostly from the Railways' lost property godown in Wadala."
Complaining of the poor condition of the prints reaching them, Pathrabe said, "The material we get are not of projectable quality and often there are only a few cans of the film so it becomes difficult to save it for archival purpose. We just received about 500-800 more cans of films from the Railways but due to shortage of manpower we couldn't look at the material is available to us."
Producers and distributors abandon prints in Railway godowns, but are often reluctant to provide the same to NFAI for archival purposes. Benegal said, "Most producers don't take interest and are only interested in the business side. Cinema too is recording history be it political or social and must be preserved."
The archives achievements include restoration and digitisation of films like Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra, Lanka Dahan and Shri Krishna Janma' Satyajit Ray's Bala, Seemabaddha, Jana Aranya and Teen Kanya; Mehboob Khan's Andaaz, Amar and Watan; V Shantaram's Navrang; BR Ishara's Chetna; Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Satyakam; Mahesh Bhatt's Arth; Shyam Benegal's Bhumika and Jabbar Patel's Jait Re Jait.
Pathrabe said, "The film industry does not take interest in archival due to lack of expertise or funds. We get films from some production houses, but mostly other sources like universities, government departments, museums and above all railway lost property are good sources of prints."
When prints are returned after their run to distributors, there is often a delay in picking them up from the Railways. Demurrage costs are high, maybe more than the reels, so they prefer not to collect them, a source said. Pathrabe said, "When godowns get packed Railways contact us." However, A K Singh, PRO, Central Railways said, "Goods that remain unclaimed, including film rolls, are kept in our godowns for 30 days, after which they are auctioned. If the NFAI comes to claim it we give it them."