NEW DELHI: A total of about 1,32,000 film reels have been acquired and the work of assessment, preventive conservation and restoration started under a mission mode project under the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM).

The scheme is to be implemented between 2014-15 and 2020-21 with total outlay of Rs 5.9741 billion to restore, digitize and archive films and filmic material through the National Film Archives of India.

Of the outlay, Rs 126.6 million has been incurred till date during 2016-17. The expenditure incurred in 2015-16 was Rs 108 million and Rs 162 million in 2014-15.

The minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Rathore said the NFAI has temperature and humidity controlled vaults for storage and preservation of film reels.

The non-filmic ancillary material, such as photographs, song booklets, posters, films magazines, etc. are stored under temperature controlled environment.

Some of the objectives of the NFHM include:

i. To undertake film conservation assessment.
ii. Preventive conservation of film reels.
iii. Picture and sound restoration of landmark feature films and short films.
iv. Digitization of feature films and short films.
v. Construction of archival and preservation facilities for material restored under NFHM.
vi. Conducting training workshops and courses in field of conservation, preservation and archiving.