Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Limited (HPF) was an Indian-based public sector manufacturer of photographic films, cine films, X-ray films, graphic arts films, photographic paper, and chemistry. It was incorporated in 1960 It is based at

Udhagamandalam Ooty (), officially known as Udhagamandalam (also known as Ootacamund (); abbreviated as Udhagai), is a city and a municipality in the Nilgiris district of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located north west of Coimbatore and so ...

, a hill station in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. Their photographic films were sold under the name "Indu", which means "

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

" in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

(

silver halide A silver halide (or silver salt) is one of the chemical compounds that can form between the element silver (Ag) and one of the halogens. In particular, bromine (Br), chlorine (Cl), iodine (I) and fluorine (F) may each combine with silver to prod ...

s are used in film). Hindustan Photo Films Ltd, which employed over 714 employees as of 31 March 2012, was declared bankrupt by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in 1996. In March 2013, a Rs 181 crore VRS package for employees of the ailing PSU Hindustan Photo Films based on notional pay scales of 2007. Its losses have mounted, from Rs 2,132,950,000,000 in 2014-15 to Rs 2,885,750,000,000 in 2016-17. After the decision of the

Madras High Court The Madras High Court is a High Court in India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is located in Chennai, and is the third oldest high court of India after the Calcutta High C ...

in August 2016, the company was wound up and is undergoing liquidation.

References

* * * Closure notices have been pasted on the entrance gates of the iconic Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Company Limited (HPF) in Udhagamandalam, which at one point in its history employed more than 5,000 workers. Photographic film makers Photography companies of India Companies based in Tamil Nadu Chemical companies established in 1960 Culture of Ooty 1960 establishments in Madras State {{photo-stub