Prasad Film Laboratories has issued a public notice in the June 20, 2026 issue of Complete Cinema magazine, asking the rightful owners to collect film negatives and other celluloid materials lying unclaimed at its premises in Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Dear filmmakers, Ek Aur Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar Na Hoone De: Prasad Film Laboratories has given 30 days to owners to collect negatives before permanent destruction
As per the notice, the claim on the concerned content should be made within 30 days from the date of publication. The company has cautioned that any negative or celluloid property not collected after the stipulated period may be permanently destroyed as per the prevailing pollution-control norms.
This announcement is important for producers, studios, distributors, financiers and legal heirs who may have deposited original negatives, prints or related film materials in laboratories over the years. Since many older films were preserved primarily on physical stock, failure to retrieve such material could potentially result in the irreversible loss of valuable cinematic assets.
Stakeholders are therefore advised to verify their records and immediately contact the concerned Prasad Film Laboratories facility if they feel that any of their material is stored there. Ownership documents and other supporting records may be required before content can be released.
A source told S“Prasad Lab was closed down a few years ago. However, they preserved the negatives in their cold storage and charged rent for it. Now they are dismantling the cold storage facility as well. So, it is important that the message reaches the real owners in the industry. In the past, the negatives of some films were destroyed. Now, no copy of those films is available.”
A famous and unfortunate example is the Manoj Bajpayee-Tabu starrer take it easy my friend (2000). In an exclusive interview with On the film’s 25th anniversary, in October 2025, Hansal Mehta said, “The negatives of the film have been destroyed. My producer partners had sent the negative films to Adlabs. When Adlabs was closing down, it sent a notice to the producer partners informing them that ‘All the negatives are with us. Claim them within a month. Otherwise, we will destroy them.’ He was given one month’s notice. But either someone did not receive the notice, or they received the notice but did not make the payment. Pay attention to this. Eventually, the negatives were destroyed, so instead of celebrating the film, I am very saddened by the development.
Hansal Mehta further added, “I asked my producers about the negatives the other day. They had no clue and later, they realized that the negatives were destroyed. So, there is no record of the film.”
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