Downloading – Raja_Harishchandra.mp4… 67%

In early 2003, A major fire in Film and Television Institute (FTTI), Pune destroyed hundreds of original negatives and prints of very rare black-and-white golden classics films of 1950’s. This happened once, and this may happen again.

Well, why do we need to be old fashioned in this. I do agree to the point of having the original negatives and prints of movies, but why can’t we have a digital backup of the same also? Why can’t we convert the archive into digital formats and store it in some server, or may be multiple mirror servers.

According to Handbook of Indian Copyright Law, Any film will be released from it’s copyright and belongs to public domain after 60 years from its first release. So that essentially means that any movie released before Mar 31, 1948 has been released from its copyright and belongs to public domain.

I’ve done a quick search on p2p/torrent networks for the movie Raja Harishchandra, released in 1913, but didn’t fetch me any results. I can see many classic Hollywood movies available for public domain.

Reason being the digital format of the movie is not available for the public domain. Let alone being it available for public domain, there’s no digital format of that movie at all!

Converting the film archive in FTTI to digital format holds helpful for at least two reasons.

1. Save the movies from any chance of destruction in future, as may people/servers will be having copies.
2. Makes the availability of copyright-released movies for public domain, as Internet is the easiest medium to share any media.

And this definitely ensures the visibility of Indian classics outside the country too. I’ve many friends outside India who want to see classic Indian movies, which are available nowhere.