Pune, Feb 23 (IANS) The Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2016 will be held from February 26 till March 6 here and will involve lectures, presentations and practical classes that will be conducted by leading international experts in the field.

Recognising the urgent need to preserve India's rich filmic legacy, this initiative was conceptualised by filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and further associated and collaborated by Viacom18.

The workshop will be inaugurated by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah in the presence of Sunil Arora, Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Sudhanshu Vats group CEO Viacom18 Media Pvt. Ltd., Dungarpur, founder director of Film Heritage Foundation and Prakash Magdum, Director of National Film Archive of India.

"We strongly believe that every enterprise has to be global and social at the same time. At Viacom18, we know for a fact that India is a country of storytellers; in fact the largest and oldest stories in the world come from here," Vats said in a statement.

"After receiving a great response in the first year itself, we are back again with a longer, more advanced and intensive Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop for all those who understand the importance of the rich cinematic legacy of India and who wish to learn, explore and contribute and contribute to saving our film heritage," Dungarpur added.

Extending his support to the initiative, Naseeruddin said there is an "urgent need" to preserve the cinematic legacy.

"When Shivendra called me and requested me to be the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony of the Film Preservation and Restoration Workshop India 2016, I was very happy to accept. There has been a growing awareness about how much of our cinematic legacy has been lost over the years for various reasons and the urgent need to preserve what is left of it," he added.

With a mix of technical workshops on the craft of preservation and lectures specially designed by David Walsh, head of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) technical commission, there will also be a daily screening of classic Indian film.