The Nayagan` duo Kamal Haasan and Mani Ratnam were the high profile speakers at the pre-cursor to the annual Film Preservation and Restoration workshop to be organized in Chennai from October 7-14 by the Film Heritage Foundation and Viacom18 in association with the International Federation of Film Archives, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, La Cinematheque Francaise, Imperial War Museum, the Finnish Film Archive and the Czech National Archive.

Kamal Haasan emphasized the need to champion film preservation as it is very important for the cultural heritage of the country and its art. According to him digital cinema is a great boon to preserve what we have and not lose everything.

Mani Ratnam speaking at the occasion lamented that most of his films and all of the legendary Balu Mahendra`s films have been lost. The 2017 workshop will aim to equip and train indigenous pool of film archivists and restorers and also create awareness about the urgent need to save India`s cinematic heritage.