PUNE: A vast treasure trove of cinema-related paraphernalia archived at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) will soon be available at the click of a button. The process of digitisation of documents and photographs related to film that began in December 2008 is nearing completion.
Some 27,000 film scripts, 13,000 posters, over 10,000 song booklets, 56,484 photograph negatives, over 4,000 pamphlets and almost two lakh press clippings have been scanned, cleaned and digitised for prompt perusal, especially for research purposes, says Arti Karkhanis, library and information assistant at the NFAI, who is in charge of this initiative.
"This will avoid the wear and tear of this valuable material due to handling. The digitised material will be catalogued and indexed with the help of a special software, and finally ready for use within the next couple of months. From then on, only the digitised versions will be available for reference," says Karkhanis. The services of a Hyderabad-based company were sought to facilitate an online repository of the massive collection of documents and photographs housed for several decades at NFAI.
"Every aspect of this vast data now digitised, will have some 30 access points. For instance, a name of a film typed into the software will yield results on the script, pamphlet, photographs, press clippings, posters, etc, pertaining to it. This will make accessing of information convenient and the NFAI will be able to provide services in a better manner, especially to research scholars," says Karkhanis.
Some five to six research scholars make the rounds of NFAI every month, and access data related to their topic of research, with greater numbers visiting around August and September "The indexing of the newly-digitised film-related literature will lend a new direction to film-related research, because, we can now come across lesser-known and unknown-names in the Indian and regional film industries, who haven't been written about," adds Karkhanis.
Interested readers and researchers can even access film scripts, all of which have been certified by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC). "The NFAI is the legal repository of all film scripts. Due to lack of space in its offices, the Censor Board sent all the film scripts, approved by it, to NFAI from 1977 onwards. Therefore, the script of every new Hindi or regional film reaches NFAI after three years from the date of its release, as this is the period given for sorting out any legal issues arising on the film," says Karkhanis.
But accessing these film scripts will require special permission from the producers concerned. Karkhanis explains, "Since copyright issues are involved, those wanting to access a film script archived with us, has to first get a no objection certificate from the producer concerned."
A special exhibition of posters related to 42 recipients of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award, has been organised by the NFAI, which will be part of a film festival organised by the Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi, from May 14 to 20. Some of the displays will feature digitised versions of photographs.
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Some 27,000 film scripts, 13,000 posters, over 10,000 song booklets, 56,484 photograph negatives, over 4,000 pamphlets and almost two lakh press clippings have been scanned, cleaned and digitised for prompt perusal, especially for research purposes, says Arti Karkhanis, library and information assistant at the NFAI, who is in charge of this initiative.
"This will avoid the wear and tear of this valuable material due to handling. The digitised material will be catalogued and indexed with the help of a special software, and finally ready for use within the next couple of months. From then on, only the digitised versions will be available for reference," says Karkhanis. The services of a Hyderabad-based company were sought to facilitate an online repository of the massive collection of documents and photographs housed for several decades at NFAI.
"Every aspect of this vast data now digitised, will have some 30 access points. For instance, a name of a film typed into the software will yield results on the script, pamphlet, photographs, press clippings, posters, etc, pertaining to it. This will make accessing of information convenient and the NFAI will be able to provide services in a better manner, especially to research scholars," says Karkhanis.
Some five to six research scholars make the rounds of NFAI every month, and access data related to their topic of research, with greater numbers visiting around August and September "The indexing of the newly-digitised film-related literature will lend a new direction to film-related research, because, we can now come across lesser-known and unknown-names in the Indian and regional film industries, who haven't been written about," adds Karkhanis.
Interested readers and researchers can even access film scripts, all of which have been certified by the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC). "The NFAI is the legal repository of all film scripts. Due to lack of space in its offices, the Censor Board sent all the film scripts, approved by it, to NFAI from 1977 onwards. Therefore, the script of every new Hindi or regional film reaches NFAI after three years from the date of its release, as this is the period given for sorting out any legal issues arising on the film," says Karkhanis.
But accessing these film scripts will require special permission from the producers concerned. Karkhanis explains, "Since copyright issues are involved, those wanting to access a film script archived with us, has to first get a no objection certificate from the producer concerned."
A special exhibition of posters related to 42 recipients of the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award, has been organised by the NFAI, which will be part of a film festival organised by the Indian Habitat Centre in Delhi, from May 14 to 20. Some of the displays will feature digitised versions of photographs.
toi
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