For FTII films, a case of out of fire, into archives mess

The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) drew some consolation from the fact that 50 nitrate-based films were saved when the nitrate-film v...

The National Film Archive of India (NFAI) drew some consolation from the fact that 50 nitrate-based films were saved when the nitrate-film vault went up in flames.

But, NFAI officials are in a spot over where to store the highly inflammable material — mostly pre-Independence era films and stock shots.

With the main vault going up in flames and the upcoming state-of-the-art storage vault continuing to be ‘‘under construction’’ for more than three years now, the authorities say they have a problem on hand as temperature and humidity levels are required to be controlled for safe preservation of nitrate films.

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The films are, at present, being stored at NFAI’s processing lab on Prabhat Road where they are taken for a routine check and monitoring of level deterioration. ‘‘We will have to decide soon as we can’t keep this material here for storage and it would not be fair to ask the producers to take them back,’’ NFAI director K.S. Sasidharan said.

As a matter of practice, the NFAI staff had been taking a set of nitrate films to the processing lab for checking their condition and removing any decaying portion from the reel.

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