Academy to revive film restoration project

The once-shelved film restoration initiative of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy appears to be getting another lease of life.

The Academy organised a brainstorming session to revive the project here on Monday.

The session, which saw participation from the associations of film professionals, producers, distributors and technicians, felt that there should be no further loss of time to restore original film prints and negatives wherever possible.

The idea behind the meeting was to take this up as a major initiative to mark the 90th birth anniversary of Malayalam cinema.

“But we are at a very early stage here and need to hold many rounds of discussions before we have anything on the table,” Academy chairman Kamal told

The Hindu .

He said the idea was to digitise film prints and preserve them with the Academy. Prints of many films made during the 1980s and even up to the 2000s have been lost. Although a project was conceived by the last government, it did not move forward. The celebrations now on to mark the birth and growth of Malayalam cinema was perhaps the best opportunity to revive the project, Mr. Kamal added.

Among those present at the meeting were director Siby Malayil, Kerala Film Chamber president Vijayakumar, Film Producers’ Association president Suresh Kumar, Film Distributors’ Association president Siyad Kokker, FEFKA general secretary B. Unnikrishnan, and Chalachitra Academy vice-chairperson Beena Paul Venugopal.

Mr. Siby Malayil attributed the present situation to official apathy. Mr. Vijayakumar pointed out that prints of even films such as Nirmalyam and Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha were not to be found. Mr. Suresh Kumar said producers have sustained huge losses owing to loss of film prints. An effort was under way now to digitise films and preserve them. Discussions had been held with the South Indian Film Chamber, he added.

Swathi Ajith