NATIONAL FILM ARCHIVE OF INDIA
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Govt. of India
Established in February 1964 as a media unit under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting the National Film Archive of India occupies a pride of place amongst India’s leading cultural and heritage management institutions today. The primary charter of NFAI is to safeguard the heritage of Indian Cinema for posterity and act as a centre for dissemination of a healthy film culture in the country. Promotion of film scholarship and research on various aspects of Cinema also form part of its objectives. Familiarizing foreign audiences with Indian Cinema and to make it more visible across the globe is another declared function of the Archive. NFAI has been a member of the International Federation of Film Archives since May 1969, which enables it to get expert advice and material on preservation techniques, documentation etc. The Archive has its own film vaults designed according to international film preservation standards.
It is an ongoing job at the Archive to trace and acquire national and international films to enrich its collection.
The well-stocked library of nearly 30,000 books on Cinema published across the globe is a boon to serious students of Cinema. More than 100 Indian and foreign journals on Cinema are received in the library. Over 45,000 film scripts both Indian and foreign received from the Central Boards of Film Certification are also preserved in the Archive.
The Research and Documentation Centre has a large collection of ancillary material on Indian Cinema. This Centre attempts to collect photographs/stills, song-booklets, wall posters, pamphlets and other publicity material of films certified by the various Film Certification Boards in the country.
With a view to providing greater and quicker access to its collections, NFAI launched a Programme for Digitization of all its collections. It has completed the digitization of its Wallposters, Photographs and Song Booklets, Pamphlets, Scripts and Press Clipping collections. Every film title has multiple access points, thus a comprehensive database of Indian films would be available. Besides, NFAI is also in the process of restoring its film collection in the digital media.
NFAI encourages and promotes research and academic activities on every aspect of Cinema. It assigns monographs on eminent Indian filmmakers and pioneering film personalities, research fellowships on themes related to Indian cinema, and audio visual history recordings of senior artists and technicians. The Archive has published a number of such projects so far.
As a part of its activities of disseminating film culture, NFAI has a Distribution Library of films which supplies films to film societies, educational institutions and cultural organizations in the country. It also conducts special screening programmes at centres like Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai Pune, Goa, Pondicherry, Kolhapur, Nagpur, Trivandrum and Delhi and other places in India . It is a major source of films for international film festivals in India and abroad.
NFAI has been conducting its Annual Film Appreciation Course of four weeks’ duration at Pune in collaboration with Film and Television Institute of India for the last three decades. Participants from different professions from all over India are exposed to the best of Indian and World Cinema. Among the major topics taught are the Basics of the Film Medium, Cinema as an Art, Film History, Film Theory, Relationship of Cinema with Other Arts and so on. The Archive also coordinates short-term courses outside Pune on similar lines in collaboration with educational institutions and cultural organizations.
A large number of scholars and researchers on Cinema from within the country and abroad look forward to NFAI as a major resource Centre where they have easy access to the largest repository of Indian Cinema and perhaps the best Library of books on Cinema and related arts in the country. NFAI’s role in making Indian Cinema a great cultural presence on the global level is unparalleled.
