Priceless Raj Kapoor Classics To Be Vaulted At Pune’s NFAI

NFAI to house Raj Kapoor's film prints

The memorabilia of Raj Kapoor’s rich career will now find a permanent house in the city.

The National Film Archive of India is all set to acquire twenty-three negatives of RK Films to be part of their collection.

Sangam

The contribution of the greatest showman of Hindi cinema spans his timeless classics from the Golden Era like Awara, Shri. 420, Aag, Barsaat, Mera Naam Joker, Sangam, Dharam Karam, Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Bobby among others that will soon be added to the NFAI vault.

These classics produced under the iconic RK Banner that mesmerized audiences from Soviet Russia to China to Hollywood, are being transferred to NFAI’s ever increasing collection.

Randhir Kapoor, will symbolically handover his father’s films for preservation to NFAI on the opening day of Pune International Film Festival on 11th January 2018 at Pune. Actor, Director, Rishi Kapoor is also expected to attend the festival.

According to a report, the original negatives of the celluloid will be kept untouched for preservation while duplicate negatives will be made for reproduction and distribution.

Speaking to the press, Prakash Magdum, Director of NFAI said, “We are thankful to the Kapoor family for entrusting NFAI with this prestigious collection, so that it can be preserved for future generations. The original negative is the ideal format for long term preservation, with the best picture and sound quality. Randhir Kapoor also toured the archives last month to inspect the storage provisions and was pleased to see the film storage facility at NFAI,” he added.

Image Source: @NFAIOfficial (NFAI twitter account)

As a part of special focus on Raj Kapoor during PIFF, NFAI will also be screening Rishi Kapoor’s Bobby (1973), an iconic representation of youth, with some other master pieces like Mera Naam Joker, Sangam, Shri 420 and Aag. A special exhibition of the film posters from RK Films will also be organised at NFAI during the festival.

The negatives of Raj Kapoors’ treasure trove was brought back to India soon after his death. At the fire that broke out in RK Studio, located in Chembur (Mumbai), the vault containing these negatives managed to survive as they were stored in another building of the premises however, the costumes worn by the heroines were unfortunately destroyed.

Loveleen Kaur