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Director hopes 'Celluloid Man' works for film preservation

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Press Trust of India New Delhi
Last Updated : May 12 2013 | 3:20 PM IST
National-award winning documentary 'Celluloid Man' may have just got off the theatres after completing its rather brief weeklong run across India, but director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur hopes that the film brings an "attitudinal change to film preservation and restoration in India".
"This film was not made keeping box office in mind. Every day I have read tweets, blogs, Facebook updates, articles and reviews where people have written how the film moved them or how they learnt something new about cinema or that something must be done to save our cinematic heritage.
"And that is really what the film was for. I am hoping that we will see an attitudinal change to film preservation and restoration in India," the director said in a statement sent to PTI from Prague, where he is currently shooting for a project.
The 42-year-old filmmaker said releasing a documentary film in India is an "uphill task".
"Releasing a documentary film in India is an uphill task, especially, one that is over two-hours long and about a film archivist. However, the film did have a hearteningly good response at the box office for a documentary," Dungarpur said.
The film follows the story of P K Nair, founder of the National Film Archives of India, who found and collected reels of the first Indian talkie "Alam Ara" released in 1931.
"Even after all this fame, Nair saab is only worried about whether people are now preserving films or not, and what is the status of the NFAI which he nurtured and reared like a child," Dungarpur added.

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First Published: May 12 2013 | 3:20 PM IST

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