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Journalism of Courage
A WEEK after 250 Indian and foreign film classics of the pre-1950 era went up in flames in the National Fire Archive of India nitrate vault, a war of words is heating up the FTII campus, where the vault was located.
Notwithstanding NFAI director K S Sasidharan8217;s assertion that the loss was 8216;8216;inconsequential8217;8217; in terms of cinematic heritage, film historians and archivists point out that priceless originals have been lost for ever.
Last week8217;s fire seems especially inexcusable in view of the fact that the NFAI was set up in 1964 to preserve films for posterity. 8216;8216;Archivists had gone to great lengths to collect the nitrate films from studios like Prabhat, Bombay Talkies and New Theatre,8217;8217; admits an NFAI official.
Expectedly, authorities old and new are busy trading charges over the maintenance of the reels. 8216;8216;The loss could have been prevented had so many reels not been stored in the same place,8217;8217; says P K Nair, who headed the NFAI for two decades. To this Sasidharan retorts, 8216;8216;Where else could the inflammable material have been kept if not in the nitrate vault?8217;8217;
Easily overshadowed by this war of words is the delay in the commissioning of the new state-of-the-art vault. Begun in 1999, it was to have been ready for the entire nitrate collection at least a year ago, but for technical problems8217;8217; read, indecision over aircooling versus airconditioning.
All these factors have promoted some of the producers 8212; mostly successors or inheritors of film rights 8212; to consider seeking compensation for the loss they have suffered, even as they admit they are not sure whether there was any insurance clause in the original agreement the NFAI had with their predecessors.
8216;8216;Nobody ever thought of insuring films,8217;8217; says Anil Damle, grandson of Vishnupant Damle, one the five co-owners of Prabhat Studios, which lost 42 films 8212; including Sant Tukaram, Amrit Manthan which had the first close-up shot in Indian cinema, Amar Jyoti and Ayodhyecha Raja 8212; in the fire.
D K Sircar of the Kolkata-based New Theatres has already contacted the NFAI, expressing concern over the loss. 8216;8216;We will seek compensation if it comes to that, but we have to first see the extent of loss,8217;8217; says Abdul Ali, the New Theatres8217; representative in Mumbai.
Nair, however, says that since almost all films had been transferred to safety base, producers 8216;8216;can take back the film copies for whatever business they wish to do, though there may be a qualitative difference, discernable only to the connoisseur, with the original8217;8217;. He also points out that it is the archival practice the world over to store nitrate films at the producers8217; risk. 8216;8216;It is never insured because of its inherent decaying properties,8217;8217; he adds.
I038;B joint secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal, on her part, says that the ministry would be inquiring into the possible causes of the fire in great detail. 8216;8216;We have to learn from the incident and move on,8217;8217; she says. 8216;8216;It calls for even intensive scrutiny of what we can do to protect our B038;W and colour prints. But I must say the fire would have been even more tragic if the films had not been transferred to safety base.8217;8217;
About the yet-to-be-commissioned vault that has been rendered useless with the destruction of the nitrate films, Duggal says the ministry panel would see if it could be turned over to the storage of regular films.
