More than 350 precious film posters ranging from 1913 till date will dot the screening venues at the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which begins in Goa Monday.

Speaking to IANS, Vijay Jadhav of the National Film Archives of India (NFAI), which has made the posters available to the IFFI this year, said that films ranging from 'Raja Harishchandra' (1913), 'Kalyancha Khajina' (1924), and 'Sati Savitri' (1927) are some of the oldest film posters which will be on display.

'We have handpicked the 350 posters and woven these into a package called ' Venus'. It deals with feminine roles in cinema,' Jadhav said, adding that some of the posters from the collection were priceless works of art.

'Of course, we have not brought the original posters to Goa. Had we done that, the fragile originals could have been damaged,' he said. 'These are excellent imitations which are on display,' he added.

Jadhav, whose NFAI will also screen several classic award winning films from their archives like 'Meera', 'Goonj Uthi Shehenai', etc at the IFFI said that film poster-making was an art which had dwindled over the years and display of such posters would help create awareness about it.

'Art school students still come to us (NFAI) to study the posters. Poster-making was a different genre altogether,' he said.

Jadhav also said that he NFAI was involved in digitizing not only films and posters, but also other ancillary film literature. 'We are preserving song booklets, record covers for posterity,' he said.

Elaborating on preservation techniques, Jadhav said that black and white films were stored at a temperature of 15 degrees Celsius with a humidity range of 45 to 50 percent, while coloured films required much more rigorous storage conditions.

'Colour prints need to be stored at 2 degrees Celsius and with a relatively lower humidity level of 24 per cent,' he said, adding that filmworld stalwarts like Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal among others had appreciated the NFAI for its efforts at preserving film history.

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