State's early milestones on film to be digitized

MUMBAI: Mantralaya is finally moving to preserve and archive the historic moments from the early period of Maharashtra’s statehood, captured on film, through digitization. The state government has appointed Famous Studio at a cost of Rs 1.24 crore to carry out digitization of 10,000 minutes of reel on 16 and 35 mm films and thus restore them.
The project is being undertaken as part of the state`s golden jubilee celebrations and will be completed by March next year.
"The films are nearly 50 years old. We store them at the Tardeo Film Centre. But these are now deteriorating. Fungi has grown on these films owing to the moisture covering these negatives. As projectors and film negatives are no longer used, we cannot transfer them on new film negatives," said an official from the publicity department responsible for the storage of the films.
These films will now be transferred into digital format so that they can be retrieved and used as and when required. "We receive requests from various television channels for shots or fottage that they do not have. Once these are digitized, we shall be able to hand over the copies," said the official.
Several of the picture negatives, sound negatives and married prints are covered with fungus that is destroying these films, which are an archival treasure. The formation of Maharashtra state filmed by Kumarsen Samarth, the state’s first chief of the films division and also the father of actresses Nutan and Tanuja is one of the rare gems that are being restored. It is the only film done in Eastman Colour, the others are all black and white.