New Delhi: The founder and former director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) and Indian film archivist P.K.Nair has passed away at the age of 82, following a prolonged illness.
According to film archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Nair, who was in critical condition for the past 10 days, died at 11 a.m. in a hospital due to cardiac arrest.
Nair, who was awarded the Satyajit Ray Memorial Award in 2008, was instrumental in acquiring for the archive several landmark Indian films like Dadasaheb Phalke’s ‘Raja Harishchandra’ and Kaliya Mardan, Bombay Talkies films such as ‘Jeevan Naiya,’, ‘Bandhan, Kangan,’ ‘Achhut Kanya’ and Kismet, S. S. Vasan’s ‘Chandralekha,’ and Uday Shankar’s’ Kalpana.’
In 2012, ‘Celluloid Man,’ an award-winning documentary was made on his life and works by Dungarpur. (ANI)