Get the best of Films Division, for free

In the last 65 years, since its inception in 1948, the Films Division Mumbai, has produced over 8,000 films, but accessing those films were always a difficult task. Now, changing all that, the government-sponsored film production house has made its films available to the public for free viewing through its newly opened Archive Research Centre (ARC).

Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrish-nan, at the opening of the Archive Research Centre

Housed on the 10th floor at the Films Division building in Pedder Road, ARC has around 15 terminals each connected to the production house's central server. Visitors can use these terminals to access around 2,000 films that have been produced and / or are marketed by the government body for free.

Poster of the film, Rangbhoomi

Among those films available for free-viewing also include: recently released Rangbhoomi -- based on Dada Saheb Phalke by Kamal Swaroop, old classics, documentaries and more. "We have a huge collection of documentary and feature films, that FD has produced over the last six decades. The idea is to make all of them available to the public," says Nitin Sapre, publicity head, Films Division, adding that it would help facilitate research in the field of cinema.

Researchers can access nearly 2,000 films' data from here. pics courtesy/ films divsion

"The ARC is open to everyone, right from students, artists, academics and filmmakers to anyone who is interested in exploring the creative value of our huge collection of visual material," he adds.

Sapre points out that the Films Division is in the process of digitising all its films, and will be adding them to the central servers as they become available.
Although, currently only films produced by Films Division are available to visitors, ARC is exploring the possibilities of including international as well as national documentary films made by other production houses as part of the facility.

ARC will also make films from the competition circuit available to the public, says Sapre. "Every year, we see hundreds of films being submitted to various films festivals across the country. But, once they are screened, they get lost. It's very difficult to trace them back and make them available for public viewing. With ARC, our goal extends to archiving those films, and making them available to the public," he added.

"The idea is to make everything available to the public," concludes Sapre.

At RR 3 Theater, 10th Floor, Films Division, Pedder Road.
Call 23510461 / 23521421
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