Pune: India's pioneering film archivist and film scholar P.K. Nair, the founder and former director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), passed away on Friday morning following prolonged illness, said filmmaker and film archivist Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. He was 82.

Nair, who was in critical condition since the last 10 days, passed away at 11 a.m. at a hospital here due to cardiac arrest, Dungarpur told IANS.