Endangered - Wildlife Filmmaking in India

This piece appeared in 'Tehelka' on January 27, 2007

Endangered: Wildlife Films

With Wildscreen arriving in India, Shekar Dattatri lays out the pitfalls of Indian environment filmmaking.

Wildscreen, arguably the world’s most prestigious wildlife and environmental film festival, is coming to India. Synonymous with excellence in wildlife filmmaking, the mission of the 25-year-old festival is to use the power of the moving image to promote the appreciation and conservation of our living planet. Its Panda Awards are to wildlife filmmakers what the Oscars are to the makers of feature films. In the past, most entries for the awards tended to be of the straight natural history variety, highly expensive ‘blue chip’ films that were the virtual monopoly of the UK and the US. More recently, however, a host of new categories have been introduced, where content takes precedence over production values. This has opened the field for filmmakers from countries like India, places where there’s enormous talent but where resources are slim. The success of a few Indian films at recent Wildscreens has made Indian filmmakers more aware of this festival. In the early 90s, there were usually just two or three Indian faces in the crowd. In 2004, India had the fourth largest number of delegates of all the countries represented.

This increase in numbers, however, belies the sorry state of wildlife filmmaking in the country. Not only are there no incentives for it at all, there are a vast number of obstacles that make its survival virtually impossible.

Unlike IT or biotechnology, which generate thousands of jobs, bring in huge foreign investment and provide valuable services cheap to global markets, Indian wildlife filmmaking will do none of the above, and is therefore of little or no interest to the government. Indigenous television channels too are unlikely to venture into this specialised segment, given the cost and time involved in producing such programmes. But without local outlets that pay for and broadcast fledgling productions, aspiring wildlife filmmakers don’t have a chance to hone their skills. Lacking experience, they will not be able to compete with filmmakers from the West, who have a far greater degree of access to knowledge, techniques, equipment and funding.

The other great obstacle faced by Indian wildlife filmmakers is the crippling cost of access to wildlife. All national parks and wildlife sanctuaries in India are under the control of the respective state governments, and special permits are required for filming in them. Apart from the red tape that is enough to quell most ambitions, there is no uniform policy or fee structure for filming. With the enlightened exception of one or two states, Indian wildlife filmmakers do not enjoy preferential rates for filming and have to pay the same exorbitant fees as foreign crews. A good wildlife film can take over a year to shoot, but with fees being what they are, Indian wildlife filmmakers cannot afford to spend the time needed to gather footage.

Until a few years ago, a really determined Indian filmmaker could just about scrape together enough money to buy a new or used 16mm or Digi-Beta camera and a few lenses, and either independently produce a film or get commissioned by a Western broadcaster. That era has now passed into history, with the world firmly set on the path to Hi-Definition broadcasting. To protect their considerable investments in these programmes, most Western broadcasters now only accept films shot with incredibly expensive Hi-Definition equipment, the kind most Indian filmmakers can only fantasise about owning. Yet, without one’s own camera and specialised accessories, it is almost impossible to make wildlife films. Hiring equipment from commercial rental houses is highly expensive and impractical, given the uncertain durations of shooting schedules and the hostile field conditions in which one has to operate.

In the past, a few of us managed to ‘make it’ in the highly competitive world of international television through a combination of grit, native ingenuity, talent and, often, secondhand equipment. Could I do it again if I had to start from scratch? I seriously doubt I have the financial muscle it would take.

While the Wildscreen Festival in India is extremely welcome, its potential impact on wildlife filmmaking in the country is debatable, given the general lack of interest in this genre. The most unfortunate thing is that even if the festival manages to enthuse a whole lot of young people, nothing will change until India relaxes its restrictive policies toward those producing documentaries.