The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in Pune is ready to preserve Sri Lankan movies in their archiving Facility. Following the discussions held between Sri Lanka Consul General in Mumbai Chamari Rodrigo and Head of the NFAI Prakash Magdum in December 2020 regarding possible collaboration between India & Sri Lanka in the area of film archiving and restoration, NFAI would collaborate in archiving 20-30 Sri Lankan movies.
The National Film Archive of India which is mandated for preserving Indian cinematic heritage also collaborates with National and International institutions to promote world cinema. The NFAI has 27 storage vaults of different sizes and the total capacity for restoration is 200,000 reels with separate facilities for colour / black and white films. Currently, NFAI is in the process of building a new facility that will cater to both celluloid and digital films which will be ready within 18 months.
Given the importance of film restoration, NFAI is undertaking a project of digitalizing 5000 movies in 2 years. The Consul General also sought their assistance in digitalizing Sri Lankan movies under the ongoing project and technical training on digitalization for Sri Lankan movie makers in view of the modern technology and highly skilled restoration artists in the Institution.
Sri Lankan Cinema would immensely benefit through this collaboration with NFAI that is one of the best archiving facilities in the world.
Consulate General of Sri Lanka
Mumbai
26 March 2021
