Kamal bats for film preservation, restoration

Kamal Haasan has supported the need for film preservation and restoration.

“Digital cinema was ushered in to preserve what we have and not lose everything. It was supposed to use technology and preserve something that’s historic,” Kamal said.

He said this on the sidelines of the pre-cursor to the annual Film Preservation and Restoration workshop to be organised here from October 7-14.

The event is being organised by the Film Heritage Foundation and Viacom18 in association with the International Federation of Film Archives, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, La Cinematheque Francaise, Imperial War Museum, the Finnish Film Archive and the Czech National Archive.

In his address, Mani Ratnam said, "“We have been floundering in the dark, unaware of how to preserve our films. I have lost most of my films. All the films of Balu Mahendra (Tamil filmmaker) are gone. It’s time we start thinking about preserving our work."

The Film Preservation & Restoration Workshop India 2017 aims to train an indigenous pool of film archivists and restorers as well as to create awareness about the urgent need to save India’s cinematic heritage.