Film Heritage Foundation

Film Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization, based in Mumbai, India, dedicated to film preservation, restoration and archiving of India’s film heritage.

History
The Film Heritage Foundation was founded in 2014 by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

Film Heritage Foundation was accepted as an associate member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) by the Executive Committee at the General Assembly held in Sydney in April 2015. The founder director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur has been elected four times as a member of the Executive Committee of FIAF.

Film Heritage Foundation’s activities cover the entire gamut of film preservation including the conservation and archiving of films and film-related memorabilia, film restoration, training and education, film curation, public outreach and advocacy. Amongst the core activities of Film Heritage Foundation is the preservation of celluloid and digital films as well as film-related memorabilia.

The foundation's aim is to preserve both films as well as film-related memorabilia. In 2015, the foundation raised funds for their film preservation and restoration workshop as well as from private businesses and Bollywood actors.

The foundation also runs education and training programmes and regularly holds workshops on film conservation and preservation and restoration around the country. In 2019, the foundation received the memorabilia of the Indian actor Raj Kapoor for preservation. The foundation initiated an oral history project in 2018, in which it interviewed at length, for a permanent historical and cultural record, some of the most eminent film personalities of India, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Mani Ratnam, Amitabh Bachchan, Soumitra Chatterjee, Goutam Ghose and Aparna Sen. The foundation in the past has been supported by Tata Trusts with a three-year grant in 2017 to provide scholarships for participants at their annual film preservation and restoration workshops.

In 2015, Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation lent their support for Film Heritage Foundation’s first film preservation and restoration workshop in Mumbai.

India Post released a postal Special Cover and cancellation stamp at a ceremony on June 14, 2024 at the General Post Office (GPO) in V.T., Mumbai in celebration of cinematic legacy Foundation's work in preserving and restoring India's cinematic legacy over a decade. Renowned filmmaker Shyam Benegal, poet, writer, lyricist, and filmmaker Gulzar, as well as the chief postmaster generals of Maharashtra and Mumbai, presided over the event. The General Post Office (GPO) in Mumbai's Philately Bureau is where you may get the limited edition Special Cover.

Preservation and archiving
The foundation currently has around 500 titles (approx. 7500 film reels) on 35 mm, 16 mm, Super 8 and 8 mm formats from the earliest days of cinema and from all regions. Besides feature films, the collections include important historical footage dating from the 1930s and ‘40s including footage of the freedom  movement  and  rare  home  movies  of  the  pre-Independence   era  that  are  preserved  in  a temperature-controlled storage facility and also have films of leading film personalities like Amitabh Bachchan, Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam, Vishal Bhardwaj, Kumar Shahani, Farhan and Zoya Akhtar, Govind Nihalani, N.N. Sippy, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Bhimsain Khurana, Chitra Palekar, Onir, Shaad Ali, Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhthankar.
 * Film collection

The foundation also archives film-related memorabilia like posters, photographs, scripts, lobby cards, song booklets and artefacts of eminent film personalities.
 * Archive of film-related memorabilia

The foundation has a rapidly expanding archive of film-related memorabilia that includes posters, photographs, scripts, lobby cards, song booklets, cameras, projectors and artefacts of eminent film personalities like A.R. Kardar, Sohrab Modi, Raj Kapoor, Kidar Sharma, Saeed Mirza, Shyam Benegal, G. Aravindan, V.K. Murthy, Sahir Ludhianvi, Sadhana, JBH Wadia, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Girish Kasaravalli, Film News Anandan, Goutam Ghose, Govind Nihalani, Jamuna J, Kundan Shah, Aruna Raje, Ashim Ahluwalia, Pran and many others from all the regional film industries.

The collection comprises over 30,000 photographs, 10,000 photo negatives, 15,000 posters, 10,000 lobby cards, 15,000 newspaper articles, 5000 lobby cards, 6000 song booklets and numerous 3-D objects.

Oral History Programme
Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) has partnered with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) known for the Oscars, for a pioneering visual history program following international practices of oral history for film heritage in India. The mission is to record, collect and preserve audio and video interviews with the men and women who form the rich fabric of filmmaking history - from designers, documentarians and executives to actors, animators, technicians and composers.

Kummatty
The FHF collaborated with Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project and Cineteca di Bologna, to restore celebrated Indian filmmaker Aravindan Govindan’s timeless Malayalam classic film "Kummatty" (1979). One of Japan's top film reviewers and scholars, Tadao Sato, described "Kummatty" as masterpiece and said he had never seen a more beautiful movie in his entire life. Not only is Aravindan a master, but all of his original camera negatives have been lost, leaving only prints that aren't in the best of shape. As a result, his films have been at the top of FHF's list for restoration.

Shivendra Singh Dungarpur travelled to Kollam, Kerala, in February 2020 to see the movie's producer, Mr. K. Ravindranathan Nair of General Pictures, who graciously agreed to grant authorization for the restoration and allow Film Heritage Foundation access to the prints from the National Film Archive of India (NFAI). The prints at the NFAI were examined by an FHF film conservator, who discovered that they weren't in a great condition. Since the prints were the best elements FHF could discover, they were sent to the L'Immagine Ritrovata lab in Bologna.

The lack of an original sound negative and the lab's use of the less-than-ideal sound from the print complicated the restoration process for "Kummatty" in this case. We digitised roughly 15 of Ramu Aravindan's father's quarter-inch recordings with his assistance in the hopes of finding better sources, but there were none. The sound experts at the lab were forced to spend numerous hours cleaning up and remastering the sound as a result.

Thamp̄
The restoration of Aravindan Govindan film Thamp̄ was done by Film Heritage foundation in 2021. It was selected for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2022.

In addition to Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd. and Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, two of FHF's partners, Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project was given permission to restore the movie by General Pictures producer K. Ravindranathan Nair.

When "Thamp̄" was restored, the film had tears and damaged sprockets, and because the dupe negative was made from a print, it lacked the latitude that an original camera negative would have. At Chennai's Prasad Studios, the sound and picture were scanned, and hours of physical labour went into the image stabilisation and digital repair of tears and scratches. Cinematographer Shaji N. Karun had shot "Thamp̄" in black and white on Indu Stock, an Indian type of film stock made in Ooty. The scanned film needed image stabilisation because the original material was in bad shape and had thick black lines and very blurry images. The outdoor landscapes in the print that FHF worked on were full of high contrast images with very dark blacks and very bright whites and no mid-tones or shadow details.

Ishanou
Film Heritage Foundation restored the 1990 film Ishanou.

The restoration was chosen for a red-carpet global premiere at the Cannes Film Festival's Cannes Classic section in 2023.

‘Ishanou’ was also screened at the Film Restored - The Film Heritage Festival 2023 in Berlin, Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2023, Festival des 3 Continents in Nantes and the Singapore International Film Festival 2023.

Restoration took a year and was difficult. The restoration used the 16 mm camera negative from the National Film Archive of India. The negative was in poor condition when Film Heritage Foundation conservators examined it. The negative had vinegar syndrome decay on reels, mold and warping, broken perforations, scratches, emulsion halos, and base distortion. Film Heritage Foundation conservators worked hard to repair the negative before scanning it with a wet-gate scanner at L'Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna.

The real problem was using inter-negative in the original camera negative, which caused grainy image quality and didn't match the rest of the film. We worked on the sound from the two 35 mm prints lying with Aribam Syam Sharma since there was no sound negative. Paradoxically, the film's quietness and Aribam Syam Sharma's music make the sound design so important. The film was shot on 16 mm on a low budget in changing light conditions, causing focus and lighting issues.

Manthan
The restored version of Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal’s 1976 masterpiece Manthan (“The Churning”) was selected for a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival 2024‘s Cannes Classics strand. Third year in a row that Film Heritage Foundation was presenting one of their restorations at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was presented in Cannes by Naseeruddin Shah, the family of the late actress Smita Patil, the daughter of Dr. Verghese Kurien, Dr. Jayen Mehta, Managing Director of Amul and Film Heritage Foundation Director, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

The film was restored by Film Heritage Foundation at Prasad Corporation Pvt. Ltd.’s Post – Studios, Chennai and L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, in association with Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (Amul), the cinematographer Govind Nihalani and the director Shyam Benegal. Manthan fictionalized the beginnings of the dairy cooperative movement in India, inspired by the life of Verghese Kurien. Arguably India’s first crowdfunded film, 5 lakh Gujarati farmers gave Rs. 2 each to fund the making of Manthan.The film, shot in Sanganava, a village 26 miles from Rajkot, Gujarat, stars Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Mohan Agashe, Amrish Puri and Kulbhushan Kharbanda.

The film was shot on Gevacolor, Eastman, and Kodak in the 1970s. The original camera negative from the NFAI and a 35 mm print preserved at the Film Heritage Foundation archive were used for the restoration.

The film was repaired by FHF conservators. Prasad Lab in Chennai performed scanning and digital clean-up under the supervision of the Bologna-based L'Immagine Ritrovata lab. Shyam Benegal was thrilled to see the full film and said it was better than the original. Director of photography Govind Nihalani was unhappy when he saw the first release prints. He had always said that the result of what he shot did not come out the way he had shot it. He was very pleased with the restored version after watching it. A special premiere of the restored film was held on World Milk Day - June 1, 2024 - at Eros Cinema in Mumbai that was attended by Shyam Benegal and the cast and crew of the film. The screening was preceded by a conversation with Shyam Benegal, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Abha Dhulia, Shama Zaidi and Prahlad Kakkar moderated by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. The film was released in 51 cities and 101 cinemas across India on June 1 and 2, 2024.

Ghatashraddha
Girish Kasaravalli’s 'Ghatashraddha’ (1977) is being restored by Film Heritage Foundation and is supported by the Scorsese-founded The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project with funding provided by George Lucas and his wife Mellody Hobson’s Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The restoration is done at L’Immagine Ritrovata in Bologna, Italy. The source for the restoration is the original negative preserved at the National Film Development Corporation-National Film Archive of India.

Bachchan Back to the Beginning Film Festival
From October 8 to October 11, 2022, 11 Amitabh Bachchan blockbusters screened as part of the "Bachchan Back to the Beginning" festival in 17 Indian cities and 22 theaters, ranging from large cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad to smaller towns like Ahmedabad, Surat, Baroda, Raipur, Kanpur, Kolhapur, Prayagraj, and Indore.

Audiences across the country had the opportunity to see the icon back on the big screen in his landmark films including: Don, Kaala Patthar, Kaalia, Kabhi Kabhie, Amar Akbar Anthony, Namak Halaal, Abhimaan, Deewar, Mili, Satte Pe Satta and Chupke Chupke.

Dilip Kumar - Hero of Heroes Film Festival
On December 10 and December 11, 2022, in honour of Dilip Kumar's birth centennial, Film Heritage Foundation and PVR Cinemas collaborated once more to produce "Dilip Kumar - Hero of Heroes," a festival of 4 iconic movies starring the legendary actor. Aan, Devdas, Ram Aur Shyam, and Shakti.

Zeenat Aman “Rewind to Don”
A special screening of the original “Don" (1978) directed by Chandra Barot was introduced by Zeenat Aman followed by a conversation with FHF Director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur at Regal Cinema, Mumbai on 29 September 2023.

An Indian Autumn at the Festival des 3 Continents in France
Film Heritage Foundation partnered with Festival des 3 Continents to co-present a retrospective of 14 classics of Indian Cinema at the 44th edition of the festival that took place in Nantes, France from November 18 to 27, 2022.

FHF co-curated the selection of Indian films with Jérôme Baron, Artistic Director of the Festival des 3 Continents. The films that were presented under ‘An Indian Autumn’ were the restored versions of ‘Thamp̄’ (1978) and ‘Kummatty’ (1979) directed by Aravindan Govindan; “Agraharathil Kazhutai” (1977) and “Amma Ariyan” (1986) directed by John Abraham; “Thanneer Thanneer” (1981) directed by K. Balachander; “Titash Ekti Nadir Naam” (1973) directed by Ritwik Ghatak; “Ashad Ka Ek Din” (1971) directed by Mani Kaul; “Khandhar” (1984) directed by Mrinal Sen; “Om-Dar-B-Dar” (1988) directed by Kamal Swaroop; “Hun Hunshi Hunshilal” (1992) directed by Sanjiv Shah; “36 Chowringhee Lane” (1981) directed by Aparna Sen; “Utsav” (1984) directed by Girish Karnad; “Arvind Desai Ki Ajeeb Dastaan” (1978) directed by Saeed Akhtar Mirza; and “Disha” (1990) directed by Sai Paranjpye. Shivendra Singh Dungarpur travelled to Nantes to present the films along with filmmakers Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Sanjiv Shah and Sai Paranjpye.

Olympics in Reel Life – A Festival of Films and Photographs
Olympics in Reel Life - A Festival of Films and Photographs, presented by Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, is a first-of-its-kind two-week-long festival of Olympic films and exhibition of photographs in collaboration with the National Centre for the Performing Arts (India) (NCPA) in Mumbai and India International Centre (IIC) in Delhi.

Dev Anand @ 100 - Forever Young Film Festival
To mark the legendary screen idol Dev Anand's 100th birthday on September 26, 2023, Film Heritage Foundation and National Film Archive of India, in collaboration with PVR INOX, presented "Dev Anand@100 - Forever Young" - a weekend festival of four Dev Anand milestone films in cinemas in 30 cities and 58 cinemas across India on September 23 & 24, 2023.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra Film Festival
Vidhu Vinod Chopra films and FHF partnered to conduct a festival of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s films at PVR and INOX cinemas in various cities across India showcasing some of the iconic films of the filmmaker including Khamosh, Sazaye Maut, Parinda and 1942: A Love Story.

Training programmes
The foundation has been conducting week-long annual film preservation and restoration workshops in collaboration with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) around the country since 2015 for creating awareness in major film centres.

Film Heritage Foundation held the first in the series of short workshops in association with the International Federation of Film  Archives  (FIAF)  and in collaboration  with  Nehru  Science  Centre  (National  Council  of Science  Museums,  Ministry  of  Culture,  Govt.  of  India)  –  “Film  Preservation  in  Practice”  –  a  two-day workshop with David Walsh and Mick Newnham on March 9 and 10, 2018. In March 2019, Film Heritage Foundation in association with FIAF and the Nepal Film Development Board conducted a workshop in Kathmandu to save Nepal’s Audiovisual Heritage.

Film Heritage Foundation organized Reframing the Future of Film an event headlined by visual artist Tacita Dean and film director Christopher Nolan in 2018 in Mumbai.

Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai conducted a 2-day Workshop for the Preservation of Audio and Videotapes in 2020. Andreas Weisser, a conservation expert from Germany was invited to conduct sessions on how to preserve audio and video tapes.

FPRWI 2022
Film Heritage Foundation and FIAF conducted the 7th edition of the Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2022 (FPRWI 2022) – in-person and hands-on from December 4 – 10, 2022 at the CSMVS Museum, Mumbai.

The Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2022 (FPRWI 2022) was an initiative of Film Heritage Foundation and the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in collaboration with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS Museum) and in association with The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, L’Immagine Ritrovata, British Film Institute, Cinemateca Portuguesa, Bundesarchiv (German Federal Archives), Institut National de L’Audiovisuel, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, Cinémathèque Suisse, Fondation Jérôme Seydoux – Pathé, The Media Archive for Central England, Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna and Janus Films.

Narinder Singh, acclaimed sound recordist who worked on films like Mani Kaul’s avant-garde feature 'Uski Roti' (1969), Kumar Shahani’s debut 'Maya Darpan' (1972), was the Chief Guest for the closing ceremony to hand over the FIAF certificates to the participants.

The 7th edition was an advanced course that was open to applicants from India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and for the first time, the Middle East. As usual, scholarships from the Tata Trusts and FIAF were available for deserving candidates. The workshop had 34 participants with 27 from India, 3 from Sri Lanka, 1 from Nepal, 1 from Saudi Arabia and 2 from Turkey.

Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School (BAVASS) 2023
In partnership with the Film Heritage Foundation, the International Federation of Film Archives held the Biennial Audio-Visual Archival Summer School from October 10–19, 2023. BAVASS 2023 hosted participants from 13 African countries, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Finland, Mexico, Thailand, Vietnam, and many other countries.

Film Archive in Manipur
On April 10, 2021, Film Heritage Foundation entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Manipur State Film Development Society (MSFDS) to collaborate with them and advise them on setting up the Manipur State Film Archive and Museum, which was announced at an inaugural programme in Imphal hosted by MSFDS for the Golden Jubilee of Manipuri cinema. The programme was presided over by the Chief Minister of Manipur as Chief Guest and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur as Guest of Honour with several doyens of Manipuri cinema in attendance including the renowned filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma.

Johnson Rajkumar, an alumnus of FHF’s annual training workshops took the initiative to make this a reality for his home state. In a gesture of goodwill, FHF donated the first two rewinding tables to the new archive, which were transported by road in a journey that took 21 days from Mumbai to Imphal.

Lifetime Achievement Award
Film Heritage Foundation instituted a Lifetime Achievement Award for Cinema Projection from 2023. The recipients of the 2023 FHF Lifetime Achievement Award were Mohammed Aslam Fakih from Regal Cinema Mumbai; Lakhan Lal Yadav from Amardeep Cinema and Raj Talkies, Raipur; and P. A. Salam from the National Film Archive of India, Pune. The awards were presented to the recipients by the Chief Guest Naseeruddin Shah along with the supporters of the award Roosi Modi, Ashim Ahluwalia and Farzana Cama Balpande of BookASmile at a special ceremony at Regal Cinema in Mumbai on July 26, 2023. The award included a certificate and prize money for each recipient.