The ensuing film about the journey of Bhagani the female tigress is among those up for showing at "Quotes from the Earth,"- a two-day environmental film festival here beginning December 6, which seeks to highlight stark environmental challenges of our times.
"I have filmed a drama. Basically the tiger is a fiercely territorial animal and the process of translocating from one territory to another comes with its share of drama," director S Nallamuthu told PTI about the making of the documentary "Tiger Dynasty".
Nallamuthu had been following Baghani along with her mother Machili and sisters for many years now at the Ranthambore National Park before she was airlifted to Sariska.
"This is said to be the very first translocation of a tiger in India. I filmed the tigress in Ranthambore and decided to follow it to Sariska so with the tigress I too made the journey," says the filmmaker.
To combat the dwindling tiger population of Sariska due to poaching the government had decided to bring in Bhagani. Nallamuthu says the tigress had to fight for her territory with animals like leopards who had in the absence of tigers laid claim to the reserve.
The filmmaker details the moves of Bhagani who has to employ her cunning to deal with other big cats as wells as villages in the forest and their cattle.
"In an alien land Bhagani has to learn to deal with human predators. The villagers feel the threat of the tiger and had once poisoned her mate. The film deals with emotions of the tigress and is quite dramatic as I have etched it out in a character based role," says Nallamuthu who took over two years to film.
Filming in Sariska, Ranthambore or any other place in India is difficult says the filmmaker. "Unlike in Africa where there is plenty of open space, in India you hardly get a blink of an ey e time to spot a tiger before it disappears in the bushes," says Nallamuthu who has shot with a hi-def camera.
"I travelled with Nallamuthu while he filmed the tiger. We are not allowed to go into the reserve unless we are inside the safari jeep. We got a good eyefull of Bhagani atop a mountain and several other good shots but it requires a great deal of patience and long hours," says Rohtas, a forest ranger at Sariska.
The filmmaker, says he is is now back in Ranthanmbore filming the story of tiger cubs who are being taken care of by their father. MORE
