Audio restoration gains momentum

The concept of audio restoration is fast gaining ground with films, old and new, undergoing makeovers for archival purposes, states The Times India.

The facility is available at a Pune-based studio, which is currently restoring sound for some Indian and Hollywood classics, and films made by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC).

The process involves intricate scanning, cleaning and restructuring of sounds tracks, and can sometime cost much more than film restoration.

“The concept of sound restoration is still at a nascent stage in India. However, latest breakthroughs in audio restoration technology are allowing larger volumes of films to be put through the audio restoration process, thereby making the process affordable,” says Purab Gujar, CEO of Cameo Digital Systems.

The company has done audio restoration of regional Indian, Hollywood and European films.

“As compared to 10% to 15% of the volume undergoing audio restoration previously, today around 30% of the volume can be taken on,” Gujar adds.

When the Indian government decided to pay tribute to writer Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary by bringing out a DVD of some classic films based on his work, they realised that sourcing the content would be a difficult task, says DNA India.

A search at The National Film Archives of India revealed that there was not a single negative or print of the 1961 classic 'Kabuliwala'.

Finally, the NFDC managed to source a televised format of the film from director Bimal Roy's family. The film was an adaptation of Tagore's work of the same title.