Struggling with space crunch, NFAI may rent additional premises to store celluloid material

As reported by The Indian Express in September, over 1,000 film cans containing celluloid negatives of documentaries made by Films Division (FD) over the last several decades are being stored without any environment control in the corridors of its office in Mumbai.

Despite requests by FD officials, asking NFAI to accept these important reels, the latter has expressed its inability to accept material due to “shortage of space”.

While the Archive plans to construct more vaults at an additional three-acre land that it received from the Film and Television Institute of India two years ago, the project may take time. That’s why officials have started to explore other options to deal with the “space shortage”.

According to NFAI Director Prakash Magdum, in a bid to safeguard film reels coming from other agencies like Films Division, the organisation has proposed to hire private premises in other locations and also moved a proposal to hire the existing space in Hindustan Photo Films, at Ooty.

“We visited two locations recently, Balchitravani in Pune and Hindustan Photo Films in Ooty. While Balchitravani was not deemed suitable for our purpose as the constructed space is without any air-conditioning facility, the other space, HPF lab Ooty, is a huge premises and there are several spaces which we can use for storage of film material… we will need to set up humidity control systems. We have sent a proposal to I&B Ministry conveying our assessment that a portion of the premises can be taken on lease,” said Magdum.

Other senior officials also said that NFAI has undertaken a project to renovate its three underground vaults and once that work is complete, it would be able to accommodate additional 50,000 reels.

“As of now, NFAI’s 16 vaults at the Phase II premises are full and there is no vacant space for additional film material. The vaults at Phase I are under renovation, which once completed, would accommodate, additional 50,000 film reels,” said an official.

Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Limited (HPF) was set up by the Government of India as a Central Public Sector Enterprise, under the Department of Heavy Industries, in 1960. The aim was to manufacture photo-sensitised goods such as medical X-ray, industrial X-ray, graphic arts and black and white film products of international standards. It was the only manufacturer of photo-sensitised goods in the whole of South-East Asia.

However, due to rapid development of digital technologies in photography, the HPF technology became obsolete and the company became unviable. It was declared sick by Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 1996. In 2014, the Government of India announced its closure by offering voluntary retirement to its employees.