A Dying Film Manufacturer In India

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Theo Sulphate

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Wow. That's sad.
 

Frank53

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Sad!
I used to buy their film travelling in India in the seventies. Think it was based on Orwo products in those days.
Frank
 

pdeeh

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India's economy is doing well, and there is an increasingly large and quite well-off middle class with money to spend on consumer goods.

Nations that are developing rapidly in that way tend to look forward into technology rather than backwards (the exponential growth of the use of technology and the way technologies were developed, marketed, used then abandoned as the next technology came along to supplant it in the US from the early 20th Century onwards is beautiful evidence, but you can look at the UK in the 19th and early 20th Century similarly, as well as Japan, and now China in the 21st)

Film is good technology. and indeed high technology, but it is old technology, and it's been supplanted.
 

Ko.Fe.

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The same as happened to Fotokemika (Efke films and B&W papers) in Croatia. Strange is how in cheaper labor prices countries like India and Croatia this business goes down, but in Germany and UK it is running ok. Better and more efficient organized I guess?

I don't know if I need this bw film. I have tried Foma and it is so so film. I have tried Shanghai 100, it is crap. Where is made in China cheap bw film in bulk from known USA distributor. I'm looking at film scans and I don't want this. I'm not sure if I want to support something I'm not sure of.
Ilford have very reasonable price and no quality issues. I'm supporting them as company I do trust.
 

ic-racer

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"The [B&W film] products are outdated..." --government-appointed company chairman-
No more so than oil paints.

"The requirement for photographic film is very low."

I'd believe that if I saw the picture of stacks and stacks and stacks of film and paper, unsold. Or hundreds of e-bay auctions for their film that are completed without a sale.

Bottom line, their government ran the company into the ground or political reasons.
 
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RattyMouse

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"Everyone once took pride in working for HPF, but that pride became such a bane," Ravindra said. "It got so bad that if you worked for HPF, no one would marry you."

Wow! Even Kodak didnt get that bad. Or did it?
 

Wayne

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I don't know if I need this bw film. I have tried Foma and it is so so film. I have tried Shanghai 100, it is crap. Where is made in China cheap bw film in bulk from known USA distributor. I'm looking at film scans and I don't want this. I'm not sure if I want to support something I'm not sure of.
Ilford have very reasonable price and no quality issues. I'm supporting them as company I do trust.

Quality is subjective. Some people take high quality film and deliberately abuse and distress it for a certain look. Even crappy film can make great art in the hands of an artist.

Too bad they can't make FP-100C in this plant...maybe we can get them to start, and get them to process Kodachrome while they're at it. It'll be a drunken photographer's dream.
 

jeffreythree

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It is sad, but I am not surprised coming from India. Their bureaucratic messes have been in the news a lot recently. I had to deal with it myself back when I was with a company selling oilfield fittings made there and a more recent software company.
 

Theo Sulphate

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However, you have to feel very sorry for the loyal staff left in limbo.

I don't feel sorry for them: they're getting paid for doing nothing. For over a year. They produce nothing and the government gives them money because it's to the government's political advantage to keep paying them rather than totally close the facility and stop paying them.

Also, rather than find some other job and be productive, these former workers are apparently satisfied with this situation.

The only money I accept is the money I've personally worked for. I wouldn't accept any money if given it as a prize, a contest winning, or an inheritance (unless it's a reimbursement).
 
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baachitraka

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I know this town and yes it was a pride to work there. It was a nice move by the government to manufacture film for domestic needs and similar move has happened to produce hmt wćatches.

Sadly when I grew up I did not saw a single advertisement during 90's about their products and almost none of the younger generation knew about them.

So B+W film was long forgotten and the company was restricted to produce x-ray films.

I don't know the current situation there.
 
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...I wouldn't accept any money if given it as a prize, a contest winning, or an inheritance...
If you ever find yourself in one of those situations and the awardee/executor/administrator is looking for someone else to accept the prize/inheritance, PM me. I'll provide my contact information for you to pass along. :D
 

alanrockwood

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I have been wondering about this company. A while back I posted a question about it here at APUG but not much came of it.
 
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