At NFAI, rare footage from August 15, 1947

The

National Film Archive of India

(

NFAI

) and Delhi’s Armed Forces Films and Photo Division have preserved some rare footage of India’s Independence.
TOI got to watch the footage comprising several short films on key politicians then. The videos appear to be shot by amateurs. Some of the footage was part of the cinematic newsreel titled ‘Indian News Parade’, an Anglo-centric production of British and American companies.

A seven-minute video titled ‘Independence of India’ shows glimpses of the crowd at India Gate, Red Fort and the Delhi railway station at the time Lord

Mountbatten

, the first governor-general of Independent Dominion of India, and his wife Edwina handed over the reins of the country to then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. It cuts to the couple leaving the Rashtrapati Bhavan, where Nehru unfurled the Indian flag.


NFAI director Prakash Magdum said, “These films are of great relevance to us. We have preserved them and will showcase them during a film fest to be held at NFAI to mark the 70th Independence Day. It took us years of planning and negotiations to get the footage. I am thankful to the Armed Forces Films and Photo Division and the

ministry of defence

for extending their help to help save these gems.”

Lord Mountbatten with his wife Edwina

Jawaharlal Nehru greets people on August 15, 1947

N Srikumar, director, Armed Forces Films and Photo Division, said, “The films were handed over to us in 1952, when the

Armed Forces for Photo and Films Division

was set up. The British gave them to us before they left the country. Shot in the 1940s, they were 35mm nitrate films. In the 60s and 70s, we copied them into celluloid films. Then, we copied them in Beta tapes and now we have them on hard discs. After NFAI contacted us a year ago, we digitised the films and put them in the public domain.”


The footage includes an exhibition held in Hyderabad in the 1940s and a five-minute felicitation of Babasaheb Ambedkar at an All India SC/ST Commission meet in Mumbai in the 1950s.


Another newsreel shows the release of Mahatma Gandhi from the Aga Khan Palace. He was greeted by a huge crowd and the famous politicians of that era. The newsreel cuts to Gandhi’s visit to Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s house at Malabar Hills in Mumbai amid much media fanfare to negotiate terms to maintain communal unity. It cuts to Gandhi and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s visit to Panchgani to meet the viceroy.