The 4^th Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2018 was inaugurated in the presence of Gautam Ghose, Soumitra Chatterjee, Rituparna Sengupta, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Madhabi Mukherjee, Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD Designate, Viacom18, Jawhar Sircar, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and Director of Film Heritage Foundation and others.

A press conference was organized prior to the inauguration of the workshop.

Film Heritage Foundation was formed in 2014 by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. In 2015, they did a workshop in Mumbai, in 2016 in Pune and in 2017 in Chennai.

Speaking at the event, Mr Dungarpur said “Many of you do not know that Amitabh Bachchan have been way ahead of his times. He has kept copies of a majority of his films in his collection thereby preserving a good amount of filmy heritage”.

“Bengalis are a community who forget their own culture and heritage easily. This is one of the biggest drawbacks of the Bengalis. As a result of the closing down of the studios in India, many films are rotting and getting destroyed slowly. We are losing bits and pieces of our film heritage. Preservation needs to be done at the earliest” said Goutam Ghose.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur highlighted on the fact that about ninety percent of the Indian silent films have been destroyed and only a few remains. “This is the sad state of affairs and we have been trying our best to preserve the heritage by restoring and preserving the films. The process is a laborious one and takes a huge amount of time. Also you need a good amount of money for this kind of work. A partnership between the Government and private bodies is the best way to do the work” said Mr Dungarpur.

At the inauguration event, an ardent fan of Prosenjit Chatterjee gave the foundation a copy of Prosenjit’s film Praner Cheye Priyo.

A brochure was also unveiled by the esteemed guests.

Eminent personalities who have been making a mark in film restoration were felicitated at the event by the esteemed guests.

Till now 300 films have been restored and a lot many are in the list which needs immediate help. With the help of this workshop, many individuals interested in this field will be able to gain knowledge and aid in better preservation of the filmy heritage of our country.

Priyanka Dutta