All posts by Atikh Rashid

A journalist with a national English daily. Interested in cinema, humour and politics.

‘Vinegar syndrome’ ruining film treasure at National Film Archive, reveals data from film assessment project

March 31, 2018 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

NFAI fails to maintain the desired temperature and humidity within its vaults, causing rapid film decomposition; AC units break down frequently and remain unattended for prolonged periods, documents show.

ATIKH RASHID

IN February 2009, P K Nair, the film archivist who is credited with setting up Pune-based National Film Archive of India (NFAI), wrote a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office, complaining that “25,000 reels of rare archival footage” at NFAI had been disposed of because the staff “could not stand the foul smell emanating from the reels”.

Nair, who retired as director of NFAI in 1991 but continued to keep an eye over the institution, said the reels disposed of contained “some rare national award-winning films for which no negatives or duplicate material exists anywhere in the country to the best of my knowledge”.

The ‘foul smell’ mentioned in his letter is the stench that emanates from acetate base film reels once they start decomposing after being exposed to heat and humidity. Preservationists call this ‘vinegar syndrome’ since the chemical released by films while decomposing is ‘acetic acid’, known commonly as vinegar.

In September last year, present NFAI director Prakash Magdum had told The Indian Express that the institution had disposed of a total of 28,400 reels in two tranches — in 1995 and in 2008. Nair, it seems, was referring to the second instance in his letter to the PMO.

Vijay Jadhav, director of NFAI when Nair made the complaint, passed away in 2010. Nair died in 2016. But the ‘vinegar syndrome’ continues to ruin the treasure of films stored at NFAI.

Information obtained by The Indian Express shows that a majority of the film reels stored at NFAI was affected by the ‘vinegar syndrome’ and a considerable number of them had been damaged irretrievably.

As part of the ‘Film Collection Assessment Project’, which is the first stage in the National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) launched by I&B Ministry, NFAI is, among other things, gauging the extent of damage caused by ‘vinegar syndrome’ to its collection. While the project is ongoing, data from 10 of the 19 storage vaults shows that of the 58,670 reels checked with acid detection strips by the end of November 2017, only 17,052 had remained unaffected by the syndrome. A total of 27,387 reels were in various stages of vinegarisation – from mildly affected, to rapidly decomposing – and 14,231 had reached the stage where the film gets irretrievably damaged due to decomposition.

A Preservationist’s Nightmare

In 1940s, acetate film base, often called safety base, emerged as an answer to the ephemerality of highly-inflammable nitrate film which was the only available film base till then. Use of cellulose nitrate for photographic film was slowly phased out, with filmmakers relying more and more on ‘triacetate cellulose’ base. In fact, a majority of surviving nitrate film collection was transferred on acetate film, hoping that it will be secured for the future. Sadly, it soon became apparent that the safety base wasn’t stable either. While it was not inflammatory, the acetate film has the tendency of ‘deacetylation’ — breaking down into simpler compounds — when exposed to high temperature and humidity. The acid, thus, released then acts as catalyst for further deacetylation, causing rapid deterioration of the affected film and even infecting the un-damaged acetate films stored nearby.

In advanced stages of decay due to vinegarisation, the film shrinks, the image layers gets delaminated from the base, the film may become brittle, crystal deposits and bubbles are formed on the surface of the film. The film reel is, thus, rendered unsuitable to be projected, or, in most cases, even copied.

NFAI’s struggles with heat and humidity

The best way to avoid and check ‘vinegar syndrome’ is to store the film under controlled temperature (around 2 to 4 degree celsius for colour, 12-14 degrees for B&W) and relative humidity (25-30 per cent for colour films, 50 per cent for B&W). Lower temperatures and drier conditions slow the decomposition process and the films stored in right conditions may last for several centuries.

Perusal of the maintenance register at the vaults showed that air-conditioners and dehumidifiers installed inside the vaults often break down and remain in disrepair for months. (Atikh Rashid)

The systems installed to control temperature and humidity at NFAI, and their upkeep, are grossly unsatisfactory, documents obtained by The Indian Express show. Not only the air conditioning systems and dehumidifiers break down frequently but, more alarmingly, it sometimes takes four to six months to repair them.

I P Mishra, Executive Engineer (Electrical) Civil Construction Wing of All India Radio which is in-charge of setting up and maintaining infrastructure at NFAI, while speaking to The Indian Express in September last year, had blamed the continuous operation of the AC systems inside the vaults for frequents breakdowns. He said that since the spare parts needed for repair are difficult to procure, the repair work gets delayed.

“The air conditioning system run 24 X 7 which leads to wear and tear, resulting in breakdowns and need of maintenance,” Mishra had said.

Documents show that between November 2014 and November 2017, air-conditioning systems and dehumidifiers in Vault No 8, Vault No 9, Vault no.10 and Vault No.11 remained out of order for a prolonged period of time. Despite requests for repair by NFAI officials, the Civil Construction Wing (All India Radio) remained unresponsive sometimes for months.

The Result

The film condition assessment data accessed by The Indian Express shows that the shoddy upkeep at NFAI has taken a toll on the films, especially in vaults where temperature and humidity control devices remained dysfunctional.

The situation was worst in Vault No 8 where, of the total 7,591 reels on which AD strip tests were performed (of 8,067 reels stored in that vault), only 53 were unaffected by vinegarisation. Around 2,688 reels were in various stages of deterioration while as many as 4,850 reels had reached an acidity level of pH value less than 4 which damages the reels permanently. These reels contain over 300 films, including all nine double reels of Awaara, seven out of eight reels of a print of Do Bigha Zameen, all eight reels of release positive of Mother India, two prints of Kalia Mardan containing five reels each, and three prints of Sahab Bibi aur Ghulam.

Similar was the case in Vault No.11 and others (see box).

NFAI Director Prakash Magdum and Official on Special Duty (NFHM) Santosh Ajmera did not respond to queries despite multiple attempts to contact him. Former director K S Sasidharan pointed to peculiar maintenance system at NFAI which may be working to the detriment of the film heritage. While NFAI is custodian of the reels stored in the vaults, the responsibility of maintaining the vaults in ideal conditions of temperature and humidity is with CCW (AIR), whose officials do not have any training or understanding of film preservation.

“These people have no cinematic sensibilities. Although they are responsible for day-to-day upkeep of films vaults and other facilities, they are not given any orientation training in cinema and its heritage value in the context of history and culture. Also, NFAI has no control over them,” said Sasidharan who served as director between 2002 and 2008.

Reportage

College of Agriculture campus lost 119 acres to govt projects in three decades

March 6, 2018 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

Information obtained by The Indian Express using Right To Information shows that the state government and municipal corporations have been turning to the college demanding land for various projects and walking away with big chunks despite protests from the institute authorities.

Recently the state government handed over 28.44 acres from the campus to the Maha Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for building a maintenance depot.

ATIKH RASHID

One of the biggest green spaces in the heart of the city — the College of Agriculture campus — has shrunk by 119.72 acres in the last three and half decades, according to data obtained by The Indian Express under the Right To Information (RTI) Act. (One acre equals 43,560 sqft). The lost green space has been used variously for widening roads, building subways and offices, agriculture-related schemes and, most recently, for building a maintenance depot for the Pune Metro.

The College of Agriculture was set up in 1879 as a department linked to the College of Science (now the College of Engineering, Pune) and, later in 1907, became a separate institute. Back then, the campus sprawled over 150 acres.

In later years, as activities expanded, the campus grew to 569.91 acres — this included land at the college’s Shivajinagar campus, farms in the Ganeshkhind area, the dairy department in Khadki and research plots in Manjari on Solapur Road. Data shows since the eighties, the college has relinquished land for various projects of the state government, the Centre and the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) but was rarely given land in compensation by government agencies.

The lush green college campus is not only popular with students who come here to study but is also a popular destination for nature lovers. The old stone college building is one of the most beautiful edifices in the city and the location for many a film shoots.

The beautiful main building constructed by British in early 20th century is a popular destination for film shoots.

Documents show the college received no land in return for a 35,000-sqft land it gave for construction of a subway on the Pune-Mumbai Highway, a 12,670-sqft land for the widening of Mula Road, a 1,23,202-sqft land for further expansion of the road, a 52,267-sqft land for widening of the Pune-Mumbai Highway, a 25,220-sqft land for the widening of University Road, a 1,549-sqft land for shifting the Mhasoba Mandir following the construction of a flyover on University Road and a 26,900-sqft land for a pumping station.

In December 2000, the college gave 8.46 acres to Sakhar Sankul, the office of the sugar commissioner, but received no land in compensation. Besides, the college gave 30.66 hectares for setting up the Directorate of Floriculture, which comes under the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). In the most recent instance, the college provided land for a maintenance depot of the Pune Metro, work on which started last year. The state government handed over 28.44 acres from the main campus of the college to the Maha Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) although the move was opposed by the college authorities.

Communications sent by the college authorities to the Maha Metro as well as the state government, obtained under the RTI Act, show that the college argued if the land was handed over to the Maha Metro, it would hamper expansion plans of the college as well as affect its current academic and research activities.

Work has commenced on the land plot handed over to Maha Metro for maintenance depot (Arul Horizon)

“Agricultural education involves experimental learning modules, which require practicals on the fields. Also, availability of land is one of the criteria for grant of funds by the Indian Council for Agricultural Research. If we lose a major chunk of land, then these prospects will take a beating. shrinking of the area will affect the agricultural education model in the entire state,” states another communication sent to the principal secretary (agriculture) on March 24 last year.

The institute’s administration had also pointed out that a whopping 6,133 trees, part of the genetically pure mother plant orchards, would be felled to clear the land for the project. The state government, however, went ahead with the land acquisition, asking the Maha Metro to transplant the orchards elsewhere on the campus.

Film Heritage and History

India should decentralise its film archiving, say renowned film archivists

February 4, 2018 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

Speaking on the sidelines of the workshop, where 14 participants were imparted introductory training on film preservation practices, David Walsh and Mick Newnham said the situation in India was a valid case for film archiving to be done on a regional basis.

ATIKH RASHID

Film preservationists Mick Newnham and David Walsh who held a two day ‘Film Preservation in Practise’ workshop in Mumbai said that given its cultural diversity, area and high film output, it could be a better idea to have regional film archives in India in addition to a central body like National Film Archive of India (NFAI).

Mick, who worked as chief conservator with National Film and Sound Archive of Australia and Walsh, who worked with Imperial War Museum, London have an experience in the field of film preservation of over three decades. The workshop which was held on March 9 and 10, was organised by Film Heritage Foundation helmed by Shivendera Singh Dungarpur in association with International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), Paris and Nehru Science Center, Mumbai.

Speaking at the sidelines of the workshop where 14 participants were imparted introductory training in film preservation practices, Walsh and Newnham said that situation in India was a valid case for film archiving to be done on regional basis.

“For a country like India which has an amazing cultural diversity, perhaps film archiving should be done more on regional basis. That might be a model that’s more successful for a country like India. For countries with much more homogenized culture, a centralized archive is more suitable. A few years ago, I visited Chennai where one of the first things that I noticed that although it’s a huge film industry producing films since 1914-1916, only a small number of Tamil films are present at National Film Archive of India. There could be any number of reasons for this,” said Newnham. “If there existed an archival facility at regional level, this situation could have been better. However, still there’s a need of a national overview, because in local governments, people think more about health, roads, infrastructure, education which are more pressing concerns for a local government. A suitable model would be that the funding and the overview should come from centralized body, while the actual management has to happen locally,” he said.

Walsh said that in case of multiple archives, it’s a must to have clearly demarcated jurisdiction to avoid a conflict and rivalry. “I can see that there’s an argument for having an archive for each reason. There are lots of countries in the worlds where they are different archives for different region and sometimes different archives for the same region. And it’s also common for them to have a conflict, if the jurisdiction is not defined clearly. Given the Indian landscape and the India’s film heritage being diverse and specific to different region, there are many advantages of having a national archive,” said Walsh.

Walsh said that having private organizations like Film Heritage Foundation comes with advantage of having flexibility and dynamism in the processes as they are not bound by governmental rules and protocols.

“Film Heritage Foundation is in fortunate position since they are not bound by decisions of a government which may be driven by factors that may not be in best interest of film heritage conservation. Such private bodies can be more active and dynamic. They are also fortunate that they are also not dealing with the Tsunami of films that is decomposing at a fast rate like at NFAI where they have inherited a major amount of the stuff with all the problems that come with it. They are kind of in a position where failure is almost certain because unless the government gives them the kind of funds that’s needed to conserve such vast heritage which will be huge amount of money,” said Walsh.

Both the experts opined that NFAI should make most of the opportunity afforded by National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM), a 597 crore project launched by Information and Broadcasting Ministry, as such projects happen only once in a while.

“The thing is that you would never get to do this kind of project, of this scale, twice. Rarely, a government would say ‘Let’s do another project for the things that we missed! It may happen in 20 years time but not immediately. It’s not going to be repeated in a reasonable time frame,” said Newnham.

Reportage

A year after demonetisation, currency chests of banks still saddled with crores in old notes

November 13, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

The Indian Express spoke to a number of officials working with currency chests in Pune, as well as senior officers of various banks, who said that almost all the currency chests in the city still hold a bulk of the scrapped notes, as the RBI has been unable to take them away due to the limited disposal capacity at its offices

ATIKH RASHID

A year after demonetisation, its success or failure is still a matter of debate, with the government and Opposition still making contradictory claims. While people had to suffer considerably in the aftermath of the decision, even bankers were hit by the decision to withdraw high-value currency notes, and their work increased considerably. Over a year after the Centre announced the move, some bankers continue to feel the effects of demonetisation.

These are the officials who work with the banks’ currency chests, as they are left holding the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes deposited by lakhs of customers. Officials working with currency chests in Pune, as well as senior officers of various banks, have said that almost all the currency chests in the city still hold a bulk of the scrapped notes, as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been unable to take them away due to the limited disposal capacity at its offices. The notes remain the property of the RBI, but are stored in the chests managed by the banks concerned.

Bank officials pointed out that this scenario often affects their routine currency distribution function, as the storage space is used up by scrapped notes, leaving limited space for currency used in their routine operations. The RBI has three regional offices in Maharashtra: the one in Belapur, Navi Mumbai, caters to 11 districts including Pune as well as the state of Goa; the Fort Regional Office in Mumbai which caters to parts of the state, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and a third one in Nagpur with jurisdiction over the whole of Marathwada and Vidarbha regions, apart from a few districts of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.

As many as 189 currency chests are connected to the RBI’s regional office in Belapur, 29 of which are in Pune district. Staffers working with currency chests and bankers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that in the days after November 8 last year, the chests started filling up with demonetised notes. “At that time, the focus was on remonetisation and dealing with the shortage of currency, so the old notes remained with the banks’ currency chests and nobody complained about it.

However, when the RBI didn’t give us any guidelines till May, we started to follow up with the apex bank, to get rid of the old notes,” said a senior officer of a leading bank. “The old notes were taking up considerable space in the chests… and our distribution operations were affected due to the limited storage space in the vaults. After our follow-ups, RBI started picking up the notes from the chests in August 2017. They used to pick up a portion of old notes from each chest, instead of emptying out a single one,” said the officer. The officials pointed out that the capacity of the RBI, to dispose of old notes, was limited. Usually, only old soiled notes, counterfeit currency or notes of a certain batch that has been withdrawn can be shredded, pulped or burnt. “With demonetisation, suddenly 1,500 crore pieces of invalid currency were created. So, it was understandable that the RBI will take a long time to dispose of all the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes,” said an official working with the currency chest of a nationalised bank. He said that according to his estimate, it may take the RBI two to three more months to take away all the notes.

The senior manager of a bank, who claimed that the bank’s currency chest still holds “over Rs 800 crore” in old notes, said he has been “following up rigorously” with the RBI’s Belapur office. “Rs 500 to Rs 1000 old notes occupy almost 60 per cent of the total capacity of the chest, leaving only 40 per cent space for our functional storage. We were promised that the old stock will be picked up by October but it’s yet to happen,” said the manager. He said that the bank was hoping that relief will arrive soon after the currency chest of Canara Bank was emptied of old notes by the RBI earlier this month.

The situation is no different at the 12 currency chests held by the State Bank of India in Pune district. Officials working with the Pune Treasury Branch of SBI, which coordinates distribution of currency for about 160 branches in Pune district, along with smaller banks, said that their vaults too were full of old notes. “In the third week of September, a portion of the old notes stored in our currency chest at the Treasury Branch, as well as parts of other SBI currency chests, were picked up. We were told that more old notes will be shifted to the Belapur office for disposal this month. It’s yet to happen,” said the official . However, the bankers admitted that the situation was much better now, when compared to the months after demonetisation. “We were forced to keep the cash in steel trunks on the floor, because the vaults were full. We managed to shift some of the old notes by taking them with us to the RBI’s Belapur office, when we visited it to pick up new notes,” said an official.

An assistant manager with a suburban branch of IDBI Bank shared that due to shortage of space in the bank’s currency chest, they often refuse to accept bundles of Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 50 notes from customers. “We have either stopped accepting Rs 10, Rs 20 and Rs 50 bundles from customers or we force those who withdraw large sums to take a portion of the amount in smaller denominations, to get rid of these bundles,” said the assistant manager.

Film Heritage and History

14 years after fire destroyed hundreds of heritage films, lessons not yet learnt

September 23, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

January 2003 fire in nitrate vaults of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) on the FTII campus.

ATIKH RASHID

ON January 8, 2003, fire broke out in a nitrate vault of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) on the Film and Television Institute of India campus. In an hour and a half, all reels in the vault were reduced to ashes. Going by a statement by then MoS (I&B) Ravi Shankar Prasad in Rajya Sabha that February, NFAI lost 607 films in 5,097 reels in the fire. These included a number of pre-1950 films, including silent films from the early era of the Indian film industry, some of these by Dadasaheb Phalke and V Shantaram. NFAI asserted that most of the films destroyed had already been copied on acetate base, also called safety base since it’s less inflammable, hence the loss wasn’t as “grim as it was made out to be”. In addition to these classics, 544 reels that stored war footage in Italian, English, German and Russian were unique prints, not copied on any medium, and therefore lost from NFAI’s collection.

A high-level inquiry followed, seeking to fix responsibility and assess the safety system and suggest measures to avoid any repeat. Although the report of the inquiry was never made public, various media (including The Indian Express) reported, based on source-based information, that the committee blamed “sparks emanating from a faulty air-conditioner” in the nitrate vault and recommended that the material be transferred to freshly built vaults on NFAI’s Kothrud campus.

Fourteen years since, the firefighting system at none of NFAI’s 27 vaults is functional. A decision to change the old firefighting system, installed in 1994, was taken in 2008; work started in 2015 and is still on. The air-conditioning systems, too, break down frequently and sometimes take months for repair, according to those responsible for maintaining these systems. A picture published by Maharashtra Times in April shows pedestal fans being used to maintain the temperature in a vault, apparently due to the failure of air-conditioning.

The Principal Director Audit, Mumbai, conducted an inspection of NFAI between December 2013 and April 2015. As per its report, accessed by The Indian Express under the Right To Information Act, NFAI didn’t have enough firefighting provisions and “loss of this property (films and non-filimc material) can’t be ruled out in case of incident of fire”.”

“The films and other filmic materal acquired by NFAI were stored in temperature controlled film vaults. It’s very inflammable articles. However, during visit, of this premises it was found that there was not sufficient provision for firefighting system and not proper backup provision of valuable articles (Films). Due to non-availability of sufficient firefighting system in the premises loss of this property can not be ruled out in case of fire…,” the report states in part II(A), paragraph 2.

As per the report, when the audit team pointed this out to the NFAI administration, it was told the new firefighting system would be installed at the earliest with the work already taken up under the 12th Plan allocation for ‘upgradation of infrastructure’. “… In reply, the department accepted the fact and stated that the existing firefighting equipment installed in the film vaults is very old and is due for replacement… The work has been entrusted to CCW (E), All India Radio and same would be completed as early as possible. [The officials] further stated that regarding backup of filmic materials, guidelines from the competent authority will be obtained and action in this regard will be intimated to audit,” reads the report.

With firefighting and alarm systems yet to become functional, eight nitrate vaults and 16 safety base vaults at phase II and three underground vaults at phase I of NFAI continue to operate under the threat of fire. Asked about this, NFAI director Prakash Magdum said the work is in the “last stage of completion” and will be over within a month. “NFAI had the fire alarm system in place since 1994 along with Halon Gas fire fighting system. Eventually, Halon Gas system needed replacement with modern fire fighting system. The work is being undertaken by Civil Construction Wing (CCW) of AIR. For the first time, we are taking steps to install carbon dioxide flooding system which will be much more effective. The work at phase II is in last stage of completion and will be over within a month. This will ensure the safety of film collection including Nitrate and safety base vaults at NFAI,” said Magdum.

I B Mishra, executive engineer with CCW (Electrical), AIR, said the reason for the delay in completing work was that although the project was slated to start in 2008, funds were released only in August 2014. “The work could only start in the beginning of 2015 after release of funds. Also, since this is a very complex and specialised job with lots of designing involved, it’s progressing slowly. Nevertheless, we have in the testing phase for safety base vaults at Phase I and will commission them in one or two months. Following this we will move to other vaults,” Mishra said.

He said the air-conditioning system breaks down often because it’s operated day and night due to specific needs of NFAI. “Air Conditioning equipment were installed in 2007-08 in Phase II and aren’t very old. However, they are run 24×7 which leads to wear and tear resulting in breakdowns and need of maintenance,” Mishra said.

Film Heritage and History

Locked in Mumbai lab, ‘unique single prints’ of Indian classics

September 22, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

EXPRESS RTI: The documents show, additionally, that NFAI got to know of the dispute just a month after the premises had been sealed in 2010 as the owner had approached court.

Building of Kine Sixteen Lab in Mumbai, now sealed. (Express photo by Prashant Nadkar)

ATIKH RASHID

Tapan Sinha’s Arohi (1964) was in the first lot of celluloid films that reached National Film Archive of India (NFAI) for preservation, soon after it was set up in Pune in February 1964. Arohi, which released the same year as Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, won the Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival and Diploma of Merit at the London Film Festival, besides the President’s silver medal for best feature film and best story award at the National Film Awards. It was the National Film Award Committee that had sent the “release print” to NFAI.

For the last 10 years, the print has been in a now sealed building in Mumbai, out of NFAI’s reach. Arohi is one of nine “important, unique celluloid film prints” that had been sent to Kine Sixteen Lab in 2007, only to be locked up in 2010 following a dispute between the “conductor of the lab business” and the owner of the property, according to documents accessed by The Indian Express and replies received to questions under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The prints had been sent for duplication as they had become “smelly and shrunk”.

The documents show, additionally, that NFAI got to know of the dispute just a month after the premises had been sealed in 2010 as the owner had approached court. Yet NFAI officials have failed to get the custody of the prints even today — it is yet to file an intervention application in the civil court where the battle over the lab property is still on.

The films

The celluloid prints locked in the property include another Tapan Sinha film, Atithi (1965), which was nominated for four awards including the Golden Lion and Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival. The other prints include Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anupama (1966).

Arangetram (1973) by Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner K Balachander marked Kamal Haasan’s debut in an adult role. Uthama Puthiran (1940) was the first Tamil film featuring an actor in a double role; it is also remembered for German technicians in the crew. Another Tamil film locked up is Ponni (1953) by A S A Sami and C S Rao. Bagha Jatin (1958) by Hiranmoy Sen portrays the life of the revolutionary freedom fighter of that name, while Veer Rajputani (1955) was directed by Jamshed “J B H” Wadia, pioneer of the action genre in Indian cinema. One film is listed as Dholak but the documents accessed do not give specifics; IMDb lists a rarely seen (just 5 votes) 1951 film of that name directed by R K Shorey, written by I S Johar and featuring Ajit.

Files read by The Indian Express show that NFAI had been sending deteriorating prints to Kine Sixteen Lab, located on the Jyoti Studio campus on Grant Road, Mumbai, for several years. It also sent celluloid raw stock, worth lakhs of rupees, for duplication of those prints. In 2007, NFAI sent 16 films including the nine that are now locked up; the rest have been returned.

NFAI director Prakash Magdum told The Indian Express that of the nine films locked inside the lab, copies of five films were in NFAI’s possession in one format or the other as per records available. On the other hand, in all its communications with the law and justice ministry, police and its lawyer, as well as in internal notes accessed by The Indian Express, NFAI has maintained that eight of the nine prints were “unique single copies”.

The effort

With work pending after the prints were sent, three years passed before NFAI officials sent an official to collect the originals and the raw stock. “It’s noticed that your landline is disconnected and you are ignoring calls on mobile which [we] find very disgusting as a business person,” NFAI film preservation officer Kiran Dhiwar wrote to Kine Sixteen “proprietor” Shyamala Ramani on April 21, 2010. “Now, we are deputing our representative to collect our film material sent for laboratory work time to time and the completed work of the subjects as per our pending orders.”

It was after this visit that NFAI officials realised that the lab had shut and been locked months earlier; that “Mrs Shyamala Ramani”, whom NFAI had addressed as “proprietor”, was “conductor of the business”; that litigation was pending between Ramani and Homsi Homi Mistry, the owner of the business as well as the premises. The laboratory was sealed after Mistry allegedly took “forcible possession” without allowing Ramani to take out her valuable articles, which included the film prints and raw celluloid stock worth Rs 35 lakh.

NFAI contacted Mistry’s lawyer requesting her to allow them to inspect the premises and take custody of the prints. According to documents, the lawyer turned down the request and asked NFAI officials to approach Gomdevi police station. The senior police inspector at Gomdevi allegedly refused to let NFAI officials in, citing the fact that the matter was pending, and asked them to approach the civil court for permission, the documents show.

Over a year more passed before NFAI officials wrote to the Union law ministry requesting it to appoint a lawyer for arguing NFAI’s case through an intervention application. Five years after that, NFAI hasn’t yet approached the court with its plea. NFAI officials said they are doing their best to get the possession of the reels.

“Kindly understand that this matter is almost 8-9 years old,” said Magdum, the NFAI director. “Initially help from police department was sought. As soon as I came to know about this matter, NFAI has initiated legal proceedings as per government process. The government counsel has been appointed in order to take up this case in the court of law for recovery of said material and we are actively pursuing the matter so that the films can be brought back.”

Advocate Vinod Joshi was engaged by the law ministry’s Department of Legal Affairs in September 2012 to represent NFAI. Till today, however, no case has been filed, documents show. “I would not comment about the matter until there are written orders to do so from the [legal affairs] department,” Joshi said, when contacted.

Reportage

From Satyajit Ray to Kurosawa, over 9,200 movie prints ‘missing’

September 18, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

EXPRESS RTI: While National Film Archive of India (NFAI) claims to have 1.3 lakh film reels in its vaults, a private firm found in 2012 that as many as 51,500 film cans that were on record were “physically not present at NFAI”. When asked about this NFAI official conceded, for the first time, that 28,400 film reels were “disposed off” in the past.

ATIKH RASHID

IN 2010, the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) got a Pune-based private firm to paste barcodes on every reel in its custody. In 2012, Cameo Digital Systems Pvt Ltd completed the project and submitted a set of reports to the NFAI along with a “summary of inventory”.

The Indian Express accessed these reports under the Right to Information (RTI) Act and came across two startling findings:

51,500 cans of film reels, and over 9,200 prints, “were not physically present” at the archives.
4,922 cans containing 1,112 film titles, which are not listed in the NFAI’s registers, were present in its vaults.

The reports include a “missing” list of hundreds of culturally and historically important titles, including celluloid prints of films by Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, its sequel Aparajito, Charulata), Mehboob Khan (Mother India), Raj Kapoor (Mera Naam Joker, Awaara), Mrinal Sen (Bhuvan Shome), Guru Dutt (Kaagaz ke Phool) and several other giants of Indian cinema.

Prints of several international acquisitions were also missing, including films by Sergei Eisenstein (Battleship Potemkin), Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves aka The Bicycle Thief), Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai), Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water) and Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds).

The list includes prints of over a hundred silent films from Indian and international cinema (Battleship Potemkin is one) and celluloid containing historic footage, including from the pre-Independence days.

They include prints of visits by foreign dignitaries and Indian leaders’ visits abroad in the first three decades after independence. Among the missing footage are those of Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to Paris, the Indian National Congress’s Karachi congregation, and US President Richard Nixon’s address during his visit to India 1969.

On the other hand, films that were present in the NFAI’s vaults but not in its records included Mughal-e-Azam (2 reels), Bicycle Thieves, Pakeezah (8 reels), Aparajito (2 reels), Pather Panchali (4 reels), Meghe Dhaka Tara (1), The Great Dictator (13 reels), Ardh Satya (14 reels), Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (10 reels), and Hunterwali (1 reel), with a few of these also listed among those with prints missing.

An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the NFAI had multiple copies of some of the missing films, and that the 51,500 missing cans may also include the 1,500 reels that were destroyed in a fire in 2003. The NFAI claims to have about 1.3 lakh film reels in its custody, containing 20,576 titles, which includes Indian as well as foreign films.

Contacted by The Indian Express, Prakash Magdum, director of NFAI, blamed poor record-keeping and shortage of staff for the “mismatch” in the Cameo reports. Magdum also confirmed that the institution had scrapped 28,401 reels in the past, in the first such admission by the NFAI.

One of the Cameo reports, submitted by the firm’s director Purab Gujar, describes how this mess was brought to light.

Titled ‘Go-live of the system in general and summary of inventory in specific’, the report states: “While doing the bar-coding exercise and creating data for the Libsys system we followed the below procedure: 1) Before commencing the bar-coding, we scanned all the ‘Physical Film Registers’ of NFAI and created a spreadsheet of all the entries. 2) During bar-coding, we made a separate record of all the films for which barcode pasting was carried out over the period of nine months. In this record, we mainly captured the accession numbers of each titles, the number of cans and the location of the title.”

The firm then compared the two databases to find that a chunk of films listed in the accession registers were not present at the NFAI storage facilities. Of the 9,283 missing titles, 1,439 were acquired by paying the cost of the print while 7,844 were loaned to the NFAI by various agencies, production houses or individuals, laboratories, as deposit or long-term loan for storage and preservation.

The sources of these prints include government agencies such as the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, External Affairs Ministry, Films Division, National Film Development Corporation; foreign missions in India like that of Germany, Australia, UK, Albania, and France; foreign film archives such as National Film Archive, London, Rumanian Film Archive, Russian Film Archive, Bulgarian Film Archive; and, film producers.

Among the films deposited by production houses were those made by Vinod Chopra Films (Lage Raho Munnabhai, Eklavya) and Wadia Movietone, Bombay (53 films, including Hunterwali ki Beti, Bambaiwali and Phauladi Mukka).

Asked about the Cameo findings, NFAI director Magdum said, “As per available records, 28,401 reels were disposed of in 1995 and 2008. The same has not been struck off the NFAI records. According to old staff at NFAI, similar disposal of films were carried out during the time of P K Nair (former director) for which no record is available. Further, there seems to be duplicate accession numbers given to similar titles for a large number of films (about 400) which underwent treatment during the 1980s.”

When it was pointed out that the number of films “physically not present at NFAI” was much higher than those disposed of, Magdum said that the counting by Cameo was in terms of cans whereas the records maintained at NFAI were in terms of reels. “This, I believe, is bound to show a mismatch in the final figures,” said Magdum.

When contacted, Cameo chief Gujar said, “The exercise was carried out several years ago. The true picture about the number of films present with NFAI will only emerge after an ongoing film assessment project is over.”

NFAI records accessed by The Indian Express also show that the situation at the institute’s library, which boasts of over 29,000 books on cinema, is not very different.

Stock verification reports reveal that 1,761 books have gone missing over the years. Of these, the loss of 1,509 books was discovered during a physical verification out in 2002. Another inspection, which ended in June 2017, revealed that 252 more books had gone missing.

One report states that a major chunk of the missing “books” was “ready reference resources” which “can’t be called books” and were “mistakenly registered” as such.

The records also include an audit report which states that the library had not carried out “physical verification” for 15 years in violation of General Financial Rules, according to which stock verification has to be done once in three years. Also missing from the NFAI are 401 DVDs.

(A copy of the Cameo report as recieved from NFAI can be found below.)

Film Heritage and History

At National Film Archive, 14,900 celluloid reels ‘stored’ in gunny bags

September 17, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

These reels are “not in runnable condition” now, states the report — in other words, they cannot even be put through a film projector. Of the 17,595 film reels found stored in gunny bags in November 2015, when the inspection that led to this report was conducted, only 2,645 were found to be in “runnable condition

ATIKH RASHID

For most of the promo, their eyes are covered with strips of film as they talk about the immortality of cinema, and the need to preserve celluloid. The message delivered by the actors is clear — so is the irony behind the scene.

This three-minute film was produced by the National Film Archive of India two years ago to promote the National Film Heritage Mission, a Rs 597-crore preservation, conservation and restoration programme launched by the government in 2014. But in reality, the blindfolds could well have been on the eyes of the NFAI itself.

An internal “condition report”, accessed by The Indian Express and replies received to requests made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, details the mess:

More than 1,100 films, contained in 14,950 reels, including rare and precious pieces of Indian and international cinema, are rotting inside 1,202 gunny bags on the second and third floors of a building inside the NFAI’s Pune campus.

According to Magdum, these films were received from the “Railway’s lost property offices”, and were of poor quality and condition. (Source: Express photo)
These reels are “not in runnable condition” now, states the report — in other words, they cannot even be put through a film projector.

Of the 17,595 film reels found stored in gunny bags in November 2015, when the inspection that led to this report was conducted, only 2,645 were found to be in “runnable condition”. But even these remained in gunny bags for several months more before being moved to customised racks under controlled atmospheres.

That’s not all.

On February 21 and 22, 2016, records show, these reels in gunny bags were shifted to a private single-storey warehouse in Chakan, about 40 km from the NFAI campus in Kothrud, without temperature control, little ventilation and leaking roofs. This was done just days before experts from India and abroad, and senior officials of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, visited the NFAI for a workshop on film preservation and restoration from February 26 that year.

According to the documents, NFAI’s administrative officer D K Sharma signed an “Octroi Certificate” to ensure that the “consignment” was not charged during transfer — the certificate valued the consignment at Rs 1 lakh. The bags were transported back to the NFAI campus two weeks after the workshop ended on March 6, records show.

The bags were transported back to the NFAI campus two weeks after the workshop ended on March 6, records show. (Source: Express photo)
“The level of neglect is such that although the reels have been with NFAI for several years, there is no proper record of the titles of these films. There is a possibility that rare ‘gems’ of Indian and world cinema could be lying there, possibly ruined by now,” said an NFAI official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Film Archive, NFAI, National Film Archive of India, cinema Archive, Indian films, Indian movies, Reel preservation,
According to the official, these film reels include documentaries produced by the Films Division, copies deposited with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) by producers and handed over to NFAI for preservation, orphaned reels of Indian and foreign films found in the parcel offices of Railways, and films seized by the Customs Department.

The NFAI was set up in 1964 as a media unit of the I&B Ministry to acquire and preserve cinematic heritage, including film and non-film material.

The NFAI was set up in 1964 as a media unit of the I&B Ministry to acquire and preserve cinematic heritage, including film and non-film material. (Source: Express photo)
When contacted, Prakash Magdum, director, NFAI, said, “These film reels were assessed, segregated and securely packed after rigorous in-house assessment activity of nearly three months in 2015. The titles thus have been identified, with multiple copies, in some cases almost 10 to 12 copies of a film. The material in good condition has been identified and put in plastic cans and stored. The damaged/decomposed material is packed in gunny bags for further necessary action such as disposing of decomposed content, which may otherwise affect the good material. Even such decomposed material is also housed in temperature-controlled conditions.”

According to Magdum, these films were received from the “Railway’s lost property offices”, and were of poor quality and condition.

However, while replying to an RTI query from The Indian Express in September 2016, the NFAI had said that it had received only 3,000 reels containing 308 film titles, including multiple copies, in the form of lost property from the Railways.

Documents reviewed by The Indian Express under RTI also show that the High Level Committee (HLC) on the National Film Heritage Mission, headed by the Secretary, I&B Ministry, held five meetings since June 2015 — but did not discuss the films in gunny bags at the NFAI even once.

The 10-member committee comprises the heads of the Film and Television Institute of India and the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, experts such as filmmakers Jahnu Barua and Rajiv Mehrotra, and senior government officials.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Barua said, “This matter never came up for discussion in the meetings so far. I’m not aware of these films. But I hope that they will be preserved as part of the heritage mission.”

It’s not just films — decaying in piles of scrap are posters, film scripts, stills, song booklets, pamphlets, and press clippings deposited with NFAI.

According to the internal report, the gunny bags have been dumped in the Service Block in phase II of the NFAI premises, which also houses over 1 lakh film stills, thousands of wall posters, nearly 2 lakh press clippings, thousands of pamphlets, film scripts and other ancillary material. Most of these were received from various libraries and individual collectors.

The inspection found that most of the paper material was tied in bundles, with layers of dust gathered over the years. Many were decomposed or got brittle due to years of neglect. Most of the press clippings were rendered illegible and had become extremely fragile.

Film Archive, NFAI, National Film Archive of India, cinema Archive, Indian films, Indian movies, Reel preservation,
Apart from being a testimony to India’s cinematic past, the film publicity material and archival clippings came to the NFAI at a cost — Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 per item depending on archival value. Documents show that in the last 14 months alone, the NFAI spent Rs 28 lakh on buying film publicity material from individual collectors.

Magdum said the NFAI started the practice of storing publicity material in acid-free boxes and folders in 2015 but did not provide specific numbers.

“The non-filmic material has not decomposed due to any neglect on the part of the organisation but every care has been taken to ensure prolonging of its life. Generally, the material becomes brittle or decomposition happens because of the age of the material. Many a times, the material received is in poor condition. However, NFAI has undertaken digitisation of this content in order to preserve the same in other medium and ensure its access to the general public and researchers at large through various modes,” said Magdum.

Asked about the reels being shifted to a warehouse last year, Magdum said the material was shifted as infrastructural work was being undertaken at the NFAI premises.

“In order to keep this material in temperature-controlled environment, the necessary infrastructure had to be created at Phase II premises. As NFAI initiated the process in August-September 2015, of installation of thermocol insulation and installation of air-conditioning and de-humidifiers equipment as a part of creation of infrastructure, it was necessary to move out the content temporarily to some other location, as NFAI did not have sufficient storage space. Once the infrastructure was created, the material was immediately brought back to NFAI to keep it in temperature-controlled environment,” he said.

The director did not elaborate on why the films were moved in February-March 2016 but said that “such a practice of keeping the material outside NFAI premises for short-term storage was prevalent in the past, too”.

Film Heritage and History

From reel to rail: How celluloid prints of Bollywood movies end up in Indian Railways’ lost property offices

March 26, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

NFAI officials say celluloid prints were often dumped by producers and distributors after they lose all their financial value. After spending months, or years, in lost property offices of Indian Railways many of the prints end up at the National Film Archive of India.

Among the films that have made their way to Natinal Film Archive in this manner include national award winners such as Chandni Bar and even blockbusters such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Munnabhai MBBS.

ATIKH RASHID

NOT all films have happy endings. A few have endings sadder than others. An RTI query by The Sunday Express shows that as many as 308 films contained in over 3,000 reels have made their way to the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) over the years, after spending long durations in the lost property offices of Indian Railways across the country.

NFAI officials say these are film reels that have been dumped by producers and distributors as these no longer hold any financial value for them. The films include national award winners such as Chandni Bar and even blockbusters such as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Munnabhai MBBS.

Although most of the reels the NFAI has received are of Hindi films, there are Malayalam, Marathi, English, Telugu, Kannada and Russian films as well. These are feature films and documentary films, and newsreels broadcast by Doordarshan in the 1980s.

Says NFAI Director Prakash Magdum, “They (the producers and distributors) book a parcel with the film reels to addresses that don’t exist, or no one comes to collect it at the office. These lie with the parcel office and then finally end up in the Lost Property Department of Railways, where they lie for weeks or months.”

In the old days, when films used to be shot on nitrate, filmmakers would sell the reels that were returned to them after their theatrical run was over to dealers, who would extract silver from them. From the 1990s, most of the films started getting shot in acetate and polyester, which don’t yield the producers any significant financial remuneration. At most the film can be melted and used in bangle manufacturing. Since 2011-2012, filmmaking and distribution has gone almost entirely digital, making physical prints redundant.

With space at a premium, the major reason producers want to get rid of the reels is that they don’t have place to store them.

R Y Joshi, the Deputy Chief Commercial Officer with Western Railway, from where a majority of the reels have come to the NFAI, says, “I remember years ago there was a circular from the Railway Board concerning the unclaimed film reels. It said that if that we have any unclaimed film reels, we should get in touch with the NFAI as they have some use for them. So we follow that instruction.”

The RTI reply shows that the NFAI has received reels from Mumbai (Western Railway), Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Gaya. The NFAI preserves these films for archival purposes.

Director Magdum says that each and every film shot on celluloid is important to them from archival point of view. “Now, since the digital medium has taken over and almost 100 per cent industry output is digital, every film shot on celluloid needs to be rescued and each holds historical and cultural importance.” Just a few days ago, he was informed about “four-odd boxes” of reels lying with the lost property office in Mumbai, he says.

Some of the film’s whose reels have made it to the NFAI from lost property offices include Shyam Bengal’s Mammo (1994), Amitabh Bachchan’s debut film Saat Hindustani (1969), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Aks (2001), Sudhir Mishra’s Chameli (2004), Mithun Chakraborty’s hit Disco Dancer (1982), Martin Scorcese’s Gangs of New York (2002), and Anant Balani’s Joggers’ Park, apart from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar (2001), and Rajkumar Hirani’s Munnabhai MBBS (2003).

Reels of 11 Russian films have come to the NFAI, including that of the 1990 comedies Deja Vu and Pasport.

Long Reads

Bhujbal Arm-strong: Once a vegetable seller, now charged in a Rs 800 cr scam

March 5, 2017 Atikh Rashid Leave a comment

He once borrowed money to sell vegetables. Now the man who jumped parties and loyalties with ease is charged in a Rs 800 cr scam.

ATIKH RASHID, SHUBHANGI KHAPRE AND ZISHAN SHAIKH for The Indian Express

SOMETIMES in the fifties, at an inter-college competition, a young man had gone up on stage to deliver a power-packed performance in a one-act play. The winner that day was Chhagan Bhujbal, a student of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute College in Matunga, Mumbai, and the runner-up was Amjad Khan (of later-day Sholay fame).
Those who know Bhujbal, the 69-year-old NCP leader who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 14 for alleged corruption during his stint as PWD Minister in two terms of the Congress-NCP government of 2004 to 2014, say that’s one skill that has stayed with him — theatrics. All he needed was a stage and in his four-decade political career, he had several — first with the Shiv Sena, followed by the Congress and then the NCP.

Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray and Chhagan Bhujbal (in black coat). Express archive photo (20.6.85) Former Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray and Chhagan Bhujbal (in black coat). Archive/Express Photo
Much before this rise and fall was a story, one as unexceptional as any. Young Bhujbal and his siblings grew up in the narrow lanes of Bagwanpura in Nashik, where his family lived cheek by jowl with several Muslim households. His parents died early and the family moved to Mumbai when Bhujbal was two. “My siblings and I were raised by my mother’s aunt Jankibai (whom he called grandmother). She was a feisty lady,” Bhujbal had recalled in an earlier interview. Jankibai’s husband was a policeman and the family struggled to make ends meet.

Those were tough days. Bhujbal would later often talk about a family function in his childhood home in Nashik, where he had to dilute the curry with water because he feared there wouldn’t be enough to go around. The story goes that in Mazagaon, Chhagan and his elder brother Magan would trudge from their one-room chawl in Anjirwadi to the Byculla vegetable market every morning where members of the Mali community (the OBC community of gardeners to which the family belonged) would pool money and help the brothers buy vegetables.

Chhagan Bhujbal, third from left, with Shiv Sena Supremo Bal Thackeray at the start of his political career.

The two brothers and their aunt would then sell the vegetables outside their Mazagaon home. The Bhujbals later managed to secure a 35 sq ft vending spot for themselves at the Byculla vegetable market. The bond that Bhujbal shared with his elder brother during those years of struggle is one of the reasons why he took his nephew, Magan’s son Sameer, under his wings after his brother’s death in the early ’80s. Sameer is now in judicial custody in the money laundering case that the ED has filed against Bhujbal and his relatives. The ED is probing alleged kickbacks received by the Bhujbal family for favouring contractors in construction of the Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi and the Kalina Central Library in Mumbai.

Political Leader Chhagan Bhujbal and Bal Thackarey. Express archive photo Chhagan Bhujbal and Bal Thackeray. Archive/Express Photo
Bhujbal, the man who borrowed money to sell vegetables, would later come to be known as the ‘strongman from Nashik’ who combined opportunism with calculated risks to further both his politics and business. As a senior NCP leader says, “Bhujbal struck a perfect balance between his politics and business. But it appears he took some wrong decisions and entrusted his nephew Sameer with his business. He should have exercised caution and ensured good advisers around him when in power.”

THE MAN, HIS EMPIRE
The sprawling campus of the Mumbai Educational Trust (MET) in Bandra stands as testimony to Bhujbal’s business acumen. The campus, spread across prime real-estate, came up in 1989 and offers multiple courses such as business management, engineering and pharmacy and even has a “rishikul” for children. The Trust also runs Bhujbal Knowledge City, an “educational hub” with four colleges in Nashik.
“Unlike politicians who own sugar mills and district banks, I decided to invest in education. Those accusing me of charging high fees should know that I have to pay electricity bills of Rs 25 to 30 lakh a month,” Bhujbal once said.
But in 2013, Bhujbal had a fallout with his chartered accountant Sunil Karve, with whom he had set up MET. Karve had accused Bhujbal’s family of misappropriating funds from the Trust.

Over the years, Bhujbal acquired prime land in Nashik and Lonavala, among other places. The Bhujbals’ family home in Nashik, inside the sprawling Bhujbal Farms, underwent a major revamp in 2012-14 when Bhujbal was PWD minister.

“It’s a huge mansion and is situated in the heart of the 5-acre Bhujbal Farms, which has a swimming pool, a tennis court, library, home theatre and a mini auditorium. The mansion is known to have imported furniture and expensive artefacts. It was built in phases over two years. The family moved here in May-June 2014,” says a Nashik-based journalist with a Marathi newspaper. He says very few people among those who have access to Bhujbal Farms — and there aren’t too many — can go to the mansion.

Shiv Sena Leader Bal Thackarey, Vamrao Mahadhik, Chhagan Bhujbal, Promod Navalkar and Manohar Joshi 12.10.86 Express archive photo Former Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray, Vamrao Mahadhik, Chhagan Bhujbal, Promod Navalkar and Manohar Joshi. Archive/Express Photo
“Most of those who visit Bhujbal Farms are not allowed to go beyond the office building. Only family members and very close aides can go to the bungalow,” says a former aide of the Bhujbals. Bhujbal Farms is enclosed within a 7-foot-high compound wall and a dense growth of Ashoka and bamboo plantation within these walls block out any view of the mansion from outside.

About 15 km away, at Shilapur village on the Nashik-Aurangabad Road, stands Armstrong Energy Pvt Ltd, a biomass power plant owned by Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and nephew Sameer. The name ‘Armstrong’ is a translation of ‘Bhujbal’.
The plant, which was supposed to have generated 6 MW electricity, has been dysfunctional since it was set up in 2009. A guard at the entrance claims repair works are on inside and says he is under instruction not to allow anyone to enter.

“Trucks would sometimes bring in bagasse from sugar factories. But the plant has hardly functioned — if it was open for a day, it would remain closed for two,” says a tea stall owner outside the gate. Officials at the Nashik District Co-operative Bank says the firm had defaulted on a Rs 11-crore loan. “It hasn’t paid back a single penny. Since Bhujbal enjoyed a lot of clout, nobody uttered a word. The firm again applied for a Rs 20-crore loan. But by this time, the state had appointed an administrator for the bank as it had run into huge losses and the bank rejected the loan straightaway,” an official of the bank says on condition of anonymity.

According to a complaint filed by Anjali Damania of the Aam Aadmi Party with the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the contract for furnishing Maharashtra Sadan was given to Armstrong Energy and another company owned by the family. Not so far from the biogas plant is Jai Electronics, formerly owned by actress Amisha Patel’s father Jai Patel. After this firm reportedly defaulted on a Rs 11.75 crore loan from Canara Bank, it was bought by Armstrong Energy a few years ago. At the entrance gate, which remains shut, is an Armstrong banner.

The Bhujbals own several other properties in Nashik — besides Bhujbal Knowledge City, they own Armstrong Water Purifier, Chandrai Bungalow, Ganesh Bungalow, an eight-acre agricultural plot, among others. Laxman Savji, a BJP leader from Nashik, blames Bhujbal for making the “politics of Nashik money-oriented”. “All this has happened in the last 10-12 years. Now it has became impossible for a common political worker to fight elections. Before Bhujbal came to Nashik, he had been a mayor of Mumbai. People hoped he would bring in change, but during his reign, only money and muscle ruled,” he says.

Bhujbal with Nationalist Congress Party head Sharad Pawar.

In Nashik, there are several stories of his alleged high-handedness. In 2009, then Nashik police commissioner V D Mishra reportedly attempted to extern four politicians with known criminal records, including one Kailas Mudaliar, who is said to be close to Bhujbal, but the act allegedly led to Mishra being transferred. It was only after Nashik residents took out protest marches that the suspension was revoked.

His critics also accuse him of treating Nashik as his fiefdom, having ensured an Assembly ticket for his son (Pankaj is MLA from Nandgaon) and a parliamentary ticket for his nephew (Sameer was elected Nashik MP in the 2009 elections), while keeping Yeola (from where he is MLA) for himself.

Despite several attempts by The Sunday Express to contact Pankaj Bhujbal, who is also named in the ED case, for this story, he remained unavailable for comment. Over the years, Bhujbal’s real-estate interests spread beyond Mumbai and Nashik too. In June 2015, after cases were registered against Bhujbal over the Maharashtra Sadan scam, the Maharashtra ACB raided his property in Achvan village, 15 km from the hill station town of Lonavala.
According to ACB officials, the estate, which oversees a valley, is spread over 65 acres and has a six-bedroom bungalow replete with rare artefacts. The estate also has a pond and a stream with a barrage over it.

Villagers say the family bought the property and bungalow around eight years ago. “As long as he (Bhujbal) was in power, he used to come here, especially during festivals. The family would always be here around New Year. But no one has come here since last year’s raid,” says a villager.

THE POLITICIAN
“Nobody is questioning his politics or leadership,” says BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, whose complaint to the ACB in 2012 brought out the Maharashtra Sadan scam. “There are serious corruption cases which have been established and he is facing the consequences. But if he has done something wrong, the law will apply to him as to any other citizen,” he says. As a diploma student of engineering in Matunga, Bhujbal had attended a Bal Thackeray rally at Shivaji Park, where he was so mesmerised by the Sena chief’s oratory that he decided to join the Shiv Sena. With his bombastic and aggressive style, Bhujbal was a natural fit in the party.

Mumbai: NCP President Sharad Pawar with party leader Chhagan Bhujbal during a meeting with the party workers of Thane district in Mumbai on Wednesday. PTI Photo (PTI7_1_2015_000139B) *** Local Caption *** NCP chief Sharad Pawar with party leader Chhagan Bhujbal during a meeting with party workers of Thane district in Mumbai. PTI Photo
In 1973, Thackeray helped him become a BMC corporator. Bhujbal would later go on to become mayor twice. In 1985, he became Shiv Sena MLA from Mazagaon, which he represented for two terms. But soon, things started souring for Bhujbal within the Sena, especially with the rise of the soft-spoken and tactful Manohar Joshi. In 1991, at the peak of the Mandal agitation, Bhujbal decided to quit the Sena, saying the party was against OBC reservation. He had by then fashioned himself as an OBC politician, but those who know him have always maintained that the real reason he left the party was because he felt sidelined. After the 1990 Assembly elections, when the Sena-BJP alliance won 85 seats, Bhujbal thought he would be named leader of Opposition. Instead, Thackeray chose Manohar Joshi.
After he quit the Sena, Bhujbal joined the Congress led by Sharad Pawar. He reportedly spent 10 days in a safehouse in Nagpur to ensure he was not attacked by the Sena.

When Pawar left the Congress to float the NCP in 1999, Bhujbal followed the Maratha leader. The same year, the Shiv Sena lost power and the Congress-NCP government came to power. Bhujbal was made Deputy CM and also handled the Home portfolio. As Home Minister, he did the unthinkable, moving against his mentor Thackeray. In August 2000, he cleared the arrest of Thackeray over his “inflammatory” writings in the Sena mouthpiece Saamana. It was a technical arrest and Thackeray was released on bail a few hours later, but the damage had been done and the Thackerays declared war. It took about 15 years for the two to patch up.

Inside Bhujbal Farm: The 5 acre premise houses several bungalows – with a recently added ‘palace’ and an office is on Agra Road, Nashik.Express Photo By Pavan Khengre,17.03.16,Nashik. Inside Bhujbal Farm: The 5 acre premise houses several bungalows – with a recently added ‘palace’ and an office is on Agra Road, Nashik. Express Photo/Pavan Khengre
For someone who has never hidden his ambition for the CM’s post, the Deputy CM’s post seemed like the start of bigger things. But ironically, that’s when the slide began. In 2003, he had to resign over his alleged role in the fake revenue stamp case, popularly called the Telgi scam. Though he subsequently received a clean chit from the investigating agencies, he sat out for the rest of the government’s term. But when the Congress-NCP came back to power in 2004, Bhujbal was made PWD minister. For someone who had been Deputy CM before, that was a letdown but it was a key portfolio. One that has returned to haunt him in the form of the Maharashtra Sadan case.

High net-worth: ASSETS ATTACHED

The ED has attached a 97,000-square-metre Navi Mumbai property worth Rs 160 crore belonging to the Bhujbal family in the name of Devisha Infrastructure. Devisha Infrastructure Pvt Ltd runs a housing project in Navi Mumbai called Hex World Housing Society.
Besides, the agency has attached two properties of the Bhujbals in Mumbai – Habib Mahal in Bandra and La Petit Fleur in Santacruz – worth Rs 250 crore. Habib Mahal is owned by Pankaj and Sameer Bhujbal, according to ED’s investigation. The other building, La Petit Fleur, was built by Parvesh Construction, a real estate firm. Pankaj and Sameer were directors of the firm from 2007 to 2011.
The ED is now planning to attach Girnar Sugarcane Mills in Malegaon that belongs to the Bhujbal family.