21 Feb : Jolted by the loss of prints of the country’s first talkie film "Alam Ara", the Government has requested the Indian film industry to give copies of each and every film being produced by them to National Archives of India (NIA) for preservation.
"No prints of Alam Ara are available with the NIA. They are lost, only some still pictures and publicity material is available with them," a senior official in the ministry of information and broadcasting said.
However, the official added the ministry has requested the Indian film industry to give copies of each and every film being produced in all parts of the country and those made till date to NIA, so that they can be preserved for future generations.
The ministry is constructing new wards in NIA for preserving colour films to ensure that prints of new films, all time classics, as well as all the films produced in India in the last 96 years (since Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra in 1913) are preserved with it.
"The new wards can preserve films for 25 years," the official said, adding that cooperation of film industries of all the regions has been sought for the purpose.