| Promising young Indian documentary filmmakers seem to be everywhere " in the US, Dubai and, of course, India. |
| This story germinated from a viewing of Gender Bender, a humble 20-minute documentary made by 28-year-old Poojita Chowdhury. The screening was at her residence, a mug brimming with south Indian filter coffee in hand while sitting in front of a classy flatron TV on a cosy sofa. |
| The story became necessary after meeting Lipika, Renuka and Virendra, three "youth reporters" from NGO Plan who had just returned from the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. Their five-minute short film on special athletes from |
| India that came minus any frills had audiences gawking at reality presented in the most ordinary way. "We documented this story to strike a chord somewhere," said Renuka at a press conference where the film was screened last week. |
| "There's madness in making documentaries," says Delhi-based filmmaker Mrityunjay. "It is the sheer obsession of presenting the truth." Maybe that's why more youngsters are getting into the field of documentary filmmaking " not for the money but for the passion that fuels them. |
| Los Angeles-based documentary filmmaker Meena Nanji took nearly three years to film her documentary View From A Grain Of Sand, an 80-minute film (her first feature-length documentary) made on a budget of $200,000 that came from her own pocket. |
| "I wanted to re-focus the spotlight on Afghan women," Nanji tells us. The search took her to refugee camps in Pakistan and Kabul, giving birth to a documentary that projected the "voices of Wajeeha, Roeena and Shapire, victims of oppressive regimes who were eventually rescued by women rights groups". |
| With over 120 hours of footage, Nanji "followed the characters over time. I started one year before the fall of the Taliban and then went back just as the US was bombing Afghanistan...to see how their lives had changed." |
| Mrityunjay says, "We spend almost every penny for documentaries from our own pockets." His one-and-a-half-year-old film company Maktub Entertainment dabbles in advertisements, website and brochure designs and "all the commercial glitter", but clearly Mrityunjay's heart beats for documentaries. "It is the most powerful tool to present the truth," he says. That's why this 28-year-old is fighting all odds to keep his passion alive. |
| "Documentaries don't fetch money so I earn from producing commercials," he says candidly. He recently wrapped up a documentary on the late Ustad Vilayat Khan (a rough cut of which was shown at New Delhi's India Habitat Centre) and is already working on the script of his next documentary. |
| According to him, the documentary film market in India is where "genuine talent and cheats co-exist". He laments that funds for documentaries are unimpressive. In certain cases, "even clients make false promises". |
| Documentary daddy Mike Pandey of Riverbank films agrees with him. "Yes, we need monetary encouragement to showcase these documentaries," he says. |
| "Documentaries can reach people only if national television channels (Doordarshan in India's case) take the initiative." While Mike's nephew Arjun, and son Gautam, have also joined Mike, 30-year-old twins Ajay and Vijay Bedi, who joined their father Rakesh Bedi, recently became the youngest Asians to receive the Green Oscar award. |
| Vijay even specialises in underwater filming, and along with his brother bagged the 2006 Montena film award for their documentary showcasing the courtship behaviour of the giant panda. |
| If the Bedi brothers are studying pandas at close hand, 30-year-old Syed Fayaz, has documented the use of mongoose hair in paint brushes, the illegal shahtoosh trade, and more recently a moving account of victims of silicosis in Gujarat in The Way to Dusty Death, a Rs 3.5 lakh budget film funded by Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT). |
| A broadcast journalism student from the University of Wales, he feels strongly about the need for "more forums like PSBT to encourage young documentary filmmakers". Will he ever shift to fiction? "No, I believe in real life," says Fayaz, who has also produced films for Channel 4 of BBC, Discovery Europe and other Indian channels. But money? "There are other means to make money," he laughs. |
| For Gaurav Jani, money comes from assisting mainstream film directors like Ram Gopal Varma and eventually doing his own thing. His recent documentary Riding Solo To The Top Of The World won the Golden Conch award at the Mumbai international film festival last month. |
| While Jani simply picked up his Enfield and camera and travelled from Mumbai to the Changthang plateau in Ladakh, negotiating dangerous bends and curves, the Dubai-based, Mumbai-born Dhruv Dhawan reached tsunami affected areas in Sri Lanka to come up with a gripping saga, From Dust, that premiered recently at the Tribeca film festival in the US. |
| It was filmed over 12 weeks and he says, "Cutting 68 hours of footage and bringing it to 71 minutes was difficult." "Documentaries", he feels "bridge the gap between the news format and elaborate reality TV." |
| Dhawan and others of his ilk are passionate about documentaries. They may find it hard to bring their work to the multiplex near you. But, for a change, maybe we should go near their films. Maybe that will make all the difference. |
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THEIR STORIES
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WHAT YOU NEED Budget: "Realistically speaking, not less than Rs 40,000-50,000," says a filmmaker. Nanji says, "A one-hour quality documentary can cost $800,000." Equipment: "Camera, external mike, tapes, computer with editing software, music, sound and much more," says Nanji. Story/script: "It is crucial," says Mrityunjay. Funds: "Send your proposals to PSBT," says Fayaz. Rahul Johri, senior VP of Discovery Networks India says, "We will soon start workshops for young documentary filmmakers." |
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SUBMISSION We all know about the Cannes and Locarno film festivals. Here's where you can send your documentaries. Sundance film estival: sundancefilm.com Tribeca film festival: tribecafilmfestival.org Mumbai international film festival: filmsdivision.com Bring your own film festival at Puri, Orissa: byofestival.com |
