National museum for cinema to be opened soon

The countdown for the opening of the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) on the Films Division premises in Mumbai has begun.

The Museum Advisory Committee chaired by veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal has made a fervent appeal to people associated with the film industry to come forward and donate rare artefacts, vintage instruments and other memorabilia to the national museum, which chronicles the century-old journey of cinema in India.

The National Council of Science Museums, Kolkata, under the Ministry of Culture is curating the museum.

Ajay Mittal, secretary, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, who was a special invitee at the meeting, said the government has attached enormous importance to the NMIC to build it as a platform to present various facets of the Indian cinema.

The NMIC is conceived as a two-phase museum. Phase I is housed in the heritage building – Gulshan Mahal, mostly displaying static artefacts and telling the story of the Indian cinema in a chronological form.

Phase II of the museum will sport over 40 interactive galleries devoted to cinema across India, the journey of  cinema from the silent era to talkies, technology and creativity in cinema as well as a children’s activity gallery.

“A visit to the film museum should be an engrossing experience and we should have a number of interactive sections, where viewers can watch clips from classics, listen to rare recordings or learn  how cinema was  made in the bygone era,” Benegal said.
The NMIC will be the first  of its kind national film museum in India.