Filmmakers across Indian language industries are increasingly scanning and restoring their works in 8k, as a new market develops for restored movies long after their release days and box office numbers are forgotten. Helping preserve older content from irreversible damage is opening new monetization opportunities in a more visual-first market.

Prominent Indian directors and actors who have scanned their films in the 8k format include Mani Ratnam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.

“The cost of scanning a film is relatively cheaper than restoring it. Today, scanning old films in 8k is all about becoming future-ready. Film negatives are vulnerable. In future, when makers want their films in higher resolution, they can go back to their scanned 8k version,” explained Kavita Prasad, managing director, Prasad Corporation, one of the oldest film laboratories in India.

According to film processing labs, the average cost of scanning films in the 8k format is in the range of Rs 25–50 lakh. For 4k format scanning, the average cost is in the range of Rs 7–20 lakh.

Scanning films in 8k is a strategic rather than a tactical decision, said industry veterans. “Today, new films, especially big-budget spectacle films, are shot digitally in 8k. Producers can monetize such films across multiple avenues. One of these is large-screen formats such as IMAX,” said Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment.

“But scanning existing films in 8k is more of a strategic decision. Negatives are susceptible to natural decay due to climatic and storage conditions. Also, it is difficult to upgrade 4k content to 8k. However, it is easier to convert 8k resolution to 4k, given the high pixel density of 8k content,” he added.

Scanning films in 8k also helps significantly in digitally repairing and restoring images, said editors.

“A film restored in 8k can bring in visual aspects that may be missing in earlier formats. With the help of AI and VFX tools, a technician can repair images in an 8k version of a film to bring them as close to the original visual as possible,” said veteran editor Vaibhav Desai.

Scanned 8k films also fetch higher valuations for film libraries and licensing deals, said producers.

Films from a bygone era are getting a new lease of life, in restored, 4K resolution. It’s introducing a new generation of audiences to cinematic legends, but it’s also having another, more unexpected benefit: It’s bringing families closer.

Imagine a situation in which a grandfather and his grandson are leaving a theatre after watching the 4K restored version of the 1957 Hindi classic Pyaasa. The grandson, a product of today’s highly visual world, says, “The dream song in Pyaasa was shot so well for its time.”

After almost a minute, the grandfather asks the grandson, “Didn’t you like the ‘lift’ metaphor in the scene after the dream song in which Mala Sinha’s character unconsciously conveys to Guru Dutt’s character that she wanted to rise in life and wouldn’t settle for a relatively poor and impractical life with him?’ The grandson says, “Yes, that scene was also shot so well” The grandfather smiles and understands that he relived what he had cherished from the classic and his grandson experienced what he chose to experience—an exquisite marriage of ‘substance’ and ‘visual fidelity’. And just like that, the two, generations apart, have something to bond over as they leave the theatre.

This is a common experience for many Indians in recent months, as several old classics in many regional languages are being re-released in theatres following a 4K restoration. Films such as Awara (1951), Pyaasa (1957), Silsila (1981), Umrao Jaan (1981), Chandni (1989), Samrajyam (1990), Ravanaprabhu (2001) and Varsham (2004) all got theatrical re-releases, and industry observers have said there is a line-up of at least six more films which are undergoing restoration. These include Pakeezah (1972), The Godfather II (1974) and Shiva (1989).

“Film restoration has two benefits: One is preservation, where you restore a valuable piece of film, but which may not make money even after a theatrical release. And second, you restore a classic like Sholay, which is likely to be a commercial success as well. This differentiation of films is key,” said Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, founder and director, Film Heritage Foundation, a non-profit that’s into restoration.

The Film Heritage Foundation, in association with director Martin Scorsese’s film restoration company, Film Foundation, restored Uday Shankar’s 1948 film Kalpana in 2012, the first Indian film to be restored in 4K.

At a time when more mainstream cinema is being rejected for being too crass, violent or over-the-top, audiences are craving the simplicity of stories and depth of the performances from another era. Meanwhile, a different set of viewers appreciate the grand expanse of a visually clear classic on 70mm film. The re-released masterpieces thus offer something to everyone, creating a celebratory environment where the two sections of viewers appreciate old classics in their own unique ways.

This wave of restorations can also be attributed to more and better access to mobile streaming. “In the past few years, people have become used to a certain quality of content which they consume on smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, etc,” explained Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment.

If anything, streamers and platforms don’t even prefer to accept films that aren’t in 4K anymore. “Rights holders of old films in 4K version have an advantage over rights holders of the same old film in a non-4K version, because avenues of monetizing films are limited for the latter,” said Sushil Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Ultra Media and Entertainment Group.

The trend properly took off during the pandemic. With millions of people locked down at home and the pipeline of new films firmly turned off, restored films became a lifeline. “During Covid, there was no new content. It was a steady supply of old films in 4K which [entertained] audiences,” said Kavita Prasad, managing director, Prasad Corporation, one of the oldest film laboratories in India.

Even post-lockdown, in the early phase, it was film festivals honouring legendary actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand and A Nageshwar Rao, organized by the Film Heritage Foundation in collaboration with rights holders of these films, that revived footfalls in theatres. “The Amitabh Bachchan Film Festival in October 2022, which showed 11 of his films, was a phenomenal success. It did two things: It brought people back into cinema halls, which wasn’t happening since Covid. And it showed the success of old classics,” Dungarpur said.

“It then culminated with the release of 4K versions of Telugu film icon A Nageshwar Rao’s movies on his birth centenary in September last year.”

Poor box-office performance of new Hindi films in the past few years has also hastened the trend. “Today, most new films don’t run beyond a week or 15 days. Multiplexes with multiple screens need [more] content. This need is being fulfilled by the old classics in 4K. In the South, this trend has caught on quite a bit thanks to the loyal fan bases of actors,” Prasad added.

And then, there are the producers who look at it as a form of reviving cultural memories and reliving nostalgia. “Nostalgia has value and it always sells. The 4K restoration movement marks a turning point for Indian cinema. It is about reviving our cultural memory for a new generation of audiences. It also provides today’s audiences opportunities to experience the same grandeur and emotion that once defined the golden age of Hindi cinema,” explained Suniel Wadhwa, co-founder and director, Karmic Films.

But this has also triggered a natural question among industry observers: Will it be a fleeting trend, or does it make long-term business sense? One key advantage of restoring old films is the cost.

According to leading film laboratories, restoring an old film in 4K costs about Rs 20 to 60 lakh, depending on the condition of the original source material. “The cost of restoring old films is lesser than making a new film. One would have to invest at least Rs 10 to 50 crore to make a new film. But restoring an old film not only costs less, but also saves on marketing costs. Moreover, these films have already been made and were proven to have an appeal among audiences,” Prasad added.

But not all old classic films (especially Hindi) restored in 4K have met with success. “We restored a bunch of Guru Dutt films. But not all of them worked out commercially. There were no takers for Baaz (1953), but Pyaasa (1957) worked,” shared Sushil Kumar Agrawal, CEO, Ultra Media and Entertainment Group, which restored Guru Dutt’s films.

So, rights holders of these old films have been forming portfolios of 10-15 restored movies and then gauging their long-term performance, instead of assessing those of individual restored works. “A portfolio of old films restored in 4K can easily provide an internal rate of return (annual return) of at least 20% in the next three to five years post its restoration,” Gada added.

Companies which are into the business of film restoration also pointed out that 4K films provide premium advertising rates on CTVs and YouTube. According to a recent study by media and entertainment research firm Ormax Media, the CTV audience in India has grown by 85% to 129.2 million in 2025 from 69.7 million in 2024, reflecting the swift adoption of CTVs.

“Restoration is a one-time exercise. It increases a film’s reach significantly. A film’s rights holder can monetize it on more, bigger or better screens, targeting more premium audiences,” Gada said. “A 4K film on CTVs can easily fetch premium advertising rates, as it is targeted specifically to premium viewers who prefer superior visual quality,” added Gada.

At present, on average, at least 10% of libraries of aggregators have been restored in 4K, including other stages of upgradation in the visual format. Overall, these aggregators have restored 80-90% of their libraries in HD formats. And in the coming years, the restoration of films in 4K is likely to increase even further, given the available avenues for monetization. Industry observers believe that a lack of clarity regarding the lineup of new Hindi films for the next year may also work in the restored films’ favour.

They also believe that a genuine classic made 20 years later will have takers rather than merely re-releasing an old film in 4K. “A classic film which has a popular appeal can provide a huge 300-400% profit when monetized through theatrical and non-theatrical ways. Genuine classics have better stories which are highly engaging. People relate to these and want to see them in a better proposition, like in 4K,” explained Koushik Bhattacharya, founder, Quality Matters, a company which is into film restoration.

4K is essentially a display resolution of a screen. A 4K film typically shows the size of a screen horizontally and vertically in terms of pixels. Typically, a 4K film would have the following format: 4096 (size of the horizontal screen) x 2160 (size of the vertical screen) pixels.

The killer combination of online piracy, internet streaming services, high-speed broadband connections and impatient clients who can't be bothered to wait for the DVD guy to arrive at the door has led to the slow death of the neighbourhood movie library .
By December-end, Mumbai's most well-known movie library, Shemaroo, which has been servicing the toniest sections of south Mumbai, with a collection of over 10,000 titles, will close down. In Bandra's Pali Hill, Movie Junction, which used to boast of a vast collection of Hollywood classics, war movies and foreign films, shut shop earlier this month.

Other libraries across the city are barely surviving, with the movie rental business falling by 50 to 70% over the last few years. Vikram Kapur, a movie addict, sums it up: “I want to be able to watch what I want, when I want, and not worry about whether the movie is available. So, I simply go online,” he says, referring to websites like Piratebay or Torrent Reactor where any movie can be downloaded for free. The underlying technology called BitTorrent, which surfaced in 2001, has made it easy for people to download digital content from the internet quickly and anonymously from anywhere in the world. Now, all Kapur has to do is download the file and plug his laptop into his high definition television.

“Besides, DVDs come with region code that doesn't let people watch them on their players if the disc isn't released locally,” says Jeetendra Jagwani, a digital marketing professional and Hollywood movie buff. With BitTorrent, people can download a movie, albeit illegally, from any where in the world and play it on their computers, much before official discs are made available,” added Jeetendra Jagwani, a digital marketing professional and Hollywood movie buff.

The trend is in keeping with what's happening globally. Blockbuster, the DVD rental chain that was once so popular that it was considered a key part of American shopping centres, shut all its stores in the US and the UK last year as new technology made the DVD business model unworkable.

“The main issue is the timing of the movie releases,” says Kalpesh Kerawala, owner of the 15-year-old Casablanca DVD Club, on Carmichael Road. “It takes about three months for a movie to come out officially on DVD, and six months for TV serials. People are not willing to wait. They are willing to play a pirated DVD even on their expensive home theatre systems,” he says, adding that his business today is about 30% of what it was when he started out.

Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment, says the company decided three months ago to transition from the rental business to the emerging digital market. “The DVD rental was always a small part of our business. But in the last three years, business fell by 50%,” says Gada, whose library has a few thousand members. Clients have been given the option to either take back their deposits or buy the DVDs. In Khar, the popular DVD library, Sarvodaya, too has suffered a hit. Its owner, Manish Chandaria, says business is down 75% the past three years. “The movie rental business is finished. If Shemaroo is closing down, this is a clear sign for others to move on to something else,” he says.

“The entertainment consumption of people has changed. They do not want CDs, but movies on pen drives and mobiles,” says an industry expert. For instance, Shemaroo crunches three-hour movies into 15 minute clips on the Internet with all crucial dialogues and songs.

Veteran media mentor and former chairman of Reliance Entertainment, Amit Khanna, says the pay-per-view model has replaced the move rental model. “Movies on demand through satellite or cable is a business that is growing 100% per annum,” he says, adding that the major clientele is switching to digital downloads. “DVD libraries are already dead. The few left in large metros are surviving on foreign films,” says Khanna. Youngsters who have only known how to get news and entertainment on real time, laugh at the mention of lending libraries. “We don’t even download, now we just stream,” says Shirin S, with a smug grin.

Besides, most youth looking for a quick fix get their doses of bite-sized entertainment from web services like YouTube, Vimeo and Vine. Meanwhile, for those who are not net-savvy, the easy availability of pirated DVDs – which cost less than an overnight rental – makes borrowing redundant. A popular store in the Fort area has become the regular hub for movie buffs given its incredible collection of pirated films, available for less than Rs 100 per movie. “Why would I bother renting when I can buy a film, leave it in my drawer, and watch it whenever I feel like," says Jay Shah, who buys his favourite American TV serials from the store all the time.

Kerawala of Casablanca says that today, you can buy an entire harddrive of pirated films and serials. “But luckily we still have that loyal clientele of slightly older people who have not kept pace with technology.” For, there are many for whom ‘stream’ still means that little water body in Khandala, and a ‘pirate’ is the seafarer with the eye patch.