Films division to put up archive online

 
With digitalisation of around 7,600 of these films completed, and the restoration and digitalisation of the remaining underway, FD will make available all of them for downloads against a prescribed price.

Clips of these films will be available on the FD website, and anyone who wants to buy the entire film would be able to do so by making the payment online, FD chief producer Kuldeep Sinha said.

The decision to make FD films downloadable is part of an overall plan to market the documentaries produced by the wing of the Information & Broadcasting Ministry. “So far the idea had been not to commercialise our products, but now we are working towards a policy to give marketing rights (of FD films) to anyone who wants to do it,” Sinha said.

FD has also decided to rope in NGOs to produce films for it, apart from inviting outside directors to make films for it. The organisation every year produces around 70-80 films, and till now it has been a mix of in-house and outside directors, which include nearly every renowned filmmaker of the country, trying their hands on it. 

“We have received around 400 proposals to our advertisement calling for documentary proposals, and a committee will make the selection. Also, we are roping in NGOs to make films for us under a public-private partnership scheme,” Sinha said.