P. K. Nair, Indian film archivist, Died at 82

  Activist

Paramesh Krishnan Nair was born on April 6, 1933, and died on March 4, 2016.

He was an Indian film archivist and film scholar.

He was the founder and director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in 1964.

P. K. Nair was regarded as the Henri Langlois of India because of his lifelong dedication towards the preservation of films in India.

As a passionate film archivist, he worked at the NFAI for over three decades, collecting films from India and from all over the world.

P. K. Nair 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.

The 2012 award-winning documentary was made on his life and works ‘Celluloid Man’, by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

P. K. Nair passed away at 82 yrs old.