The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : This film is top dog at festival

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Saturday, Sep 01, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

This film is top dog at festival

Chitra V. Ramani

Wild Dog Diaries was shot over a period of 10 years
The makers were kidnapped by Veerappan

Bangalore: Wild Dog Diaries, a wildlife film made by the Mysore-based filmmaker-photographer duo S. Krupakar and Senani Hegde, has bagged the Best of the Festival Grand Award 2007 at the Japanese Wildlife Film Festival held at Toyam a, Japan.

Speaking to The Hindu soon after returning to the country, Mr. Krupakar said it was a moment of great joy when they won the coveted international award. The 47-minute documentary is the first Indian wildlife film to win the prestigious award.

“More than 300 films had entered the international film festival. The competition was fierce. I am very glad that our film was adjudged the best of the festival,” he said.

Fascinated

Mr. Krupakar said that the duo was fascinated by the elusiveness and social behaviour of the Indian wild dog — the dhole, which is featured in the documentary.

“The wild dog is a pack-living predator, which has always been misunderstood and persecuted. The British started eliminating the wild dogs aggressively. The wild dogs do not accept humans beings. The true ‘underdog’ of the forest, the dhole is shy, elusive and wary of humans,” he said.

There are several misconceptions about the dhole. “It is misunderstood and it was for these reasons that it was more fasating than even the tiger. We waned to change the opinion people have about the dhole.” The film was shot over a period of 10 years. “Our passion for the animal helped us sustain interest in trying to understand its behaviour. It took time to establish contact with them,” Mr. Krupakar said. While they were shooting for the film, they were kidnapped by forest brigand Veerappan.

“We were trying to get funding from the BBC, which was also very keen to do so. We lost more than a year after the incident.” Wild Dog Diaries is about the travails of wildlife filmmaker Krupakar, who is on the verge of abandoning his study of wild dogs in South India. He turns to a tribal person, Bomma, for help. A rare synergy follows, where native wisdom, complements modern learning.

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