The National Film Archive of India announced on Wednesday that it has added 162 films to its collection, reportedly making it one of the largest film acquisitions in recent times. According to a press release, 125 of the newly acquired films are in their original negative format. These include Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti (1969), SU Sunny’s Kohinoor (1960) starring Dilip Kumar, and Jayant Desai’s Amber (1952) starring Nargis and Raj Kapoor.
The archive in Pune has also acquired prints that it did not previously posses in any format, such as Jaywant Pathare’s Aalay Toofan Daryala (1973), and KA Abbas’s Faslah (1976. Apart from Hindi films, the collection also includes films in Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Bhojpuri, along with 15 unreleased films.
The films have been deposited at the archive by Mumbai’s Famous Cine Laboratory. “The film industry has reposed faith in depositing the material at NFAI,” NFAI director Prakash Magdum said in the press release.. “We appeal to filmmakers to come forward and emulate this example so that the cinematic heritage of our country can be preserved for future generations.”
The announcement was made amidst a reports by The Indian Express that revealed many discrepancies in NFAI records, which were systematised by Cameo Digital Systems Pvt Ltd in 2012. The report claimed that only 1,112 film titles listed in the NFAI’s registers were actually present in its vaults.
