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Wildlife filmmakers Krupakar and Senani on the ways of the wild
‘Enjoy every minute’
Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
Wildlife filmmakers and photographers Krupakar and Senani don’t need much of an introduction. The award-winning makers of the film, “Wild Dog Diaries”, are shy and elusive. So when they attended the screening of their film at the wildlife film festival, Aranyam 2007 in Bangalore,
Rakesh Mehar jumped at the chance of catching up with them for a wonderful conversation.
(On Aranyam 2007 and other screenings)
Senani: My most memorable screening of the film was at Mysore. Our friends are basically interested in literature. So we assumed that they didn’t have much of a connect with wildlife. But our friends saw the film and decided that the rest of Mysore should see it. The people’s responses were very emotional, the questions very intimate. That small town atmosphere really works.
Krupakar: I’ve generally seen that when it comes to any sort of cultural event, Bangaloreans make excuses. They aren’t as encouraging. In Mysore people act like it’s their own event.
Senani: You can’t criticise these boys (organisers of Aranyam), though.
Krupakar: That is why we came for the festival, because it was being organised by youngsters. It is very important for us to encourage them.
(On the feelings associated with the first close contact with the wild dog pack)
Krupakar: When we started off, if we stood even 600 metres away, the dogs would vanish. That was how our first sightings were.
Senani: In the film we have to show everything in forty-five minutes. So everything happens really quickly.
Krupakar: We don’t believe that patience is what you need to be a wildlife filmmaker. If all it required was patience, then all the sadhus in Kedarnath and Badrinath could be photographers. You have to enjoy every minute of the process.
(On the best memories of the last 12 years)
Senani: One of my best memories was following a leopard trail with a tracker called Chenna in Mudumalai. When we saw the leopard footprint, it was fresh on the mud. We decided to follow it. After a short distance, the trail became grassy and forked. Chenna was wearing a dhoti and was barefoot.
I was wearing trousers. He went down one path for just a few steps and then returned saying that the leopard had gone the other way. I asked him how he knew. He said the dew wet his legs. If the leopard had gone down the path he went, then there would be no dew drops on the grass. That seemed like a perfect metaphor to me. His bare leg and my trousers.
Krupakar: I remember when we were researching the wild dogs in 1998, a forest officer came to us and asked if he could come with us.We found a wild dog pack and went close to them in the jeep we usually used. And the dogs sat there because they recognised our jeep. When the forest officer took out his camera, one dog saw him and all of them ran away. That acceptance of our presence was really a great moment for us.
(On problems faced)
Senani: Our problems get solved and we forget about them. But the turmoil that happens within the wild dog family stays with us for a long time. I can still recollect the date, time and place when one favourite dog of ours died.
(On future plans)
Krupakar: The wild dogs have been suffering. They have been the underdogs. The first time, we were interested in transferring our love for wild dogs to the people.
Senani: We do actually have a plan to make another film about wild dogs. About their behaviour patterns. And we want to do extensive research on wild dogs in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Krupakar: In the wild dog packs, dogs leave the group because in every pack only the alpha male and alpha female breed. So they leave to create their own family. It’s called dispersal. That’s the aspect we want to cover next.
Senani: Why do they decide to leave? Who will leave with them when they leave? Or, they may leave alone. If a male or female leaves alone it goes through hell. We want to bring out that struggle.
(On their encounter with Veerappan)
Krupakar: To date, the first ten days we spent with Veerappan are the most memorable. Interesting because we were seeing a different world. He was a very interesting guy. He would tell us that anyone he kidnapped would not talk to him.
Senani: Also, his relationship with everyone around him was like that between the big boss and the peon. Anything he said they would praise. At one level he didn’t have anyone to talk to. And with regard to wildlife, he had great knowledge and could make all the animal calls with the exact tonal variations. And he had great powers of observation.
In my opinion he had the kind of power of observation that a writer requires. But when I tried to explain these things, the press immediately assumed that I had Stockholm syndrome. I was not saying that he wasn’t a criminal.
Krupakar: We didn’t need to point out that he was a criminal. It was already known
Senani: He was a very cruel, horrible fellow. But he also had another face to him.
Krupakar: We are basically writers and filmmakers. The reason we say that he was a good storyteller was because of his knowledge of details, where to stress the point, expressions, body language… he had all these skills.
Senani: That attention to detail about something you know. If you know how something works and if someone else narrates it in great detail you will know if he’s lying, exaggerating, narrating correctly… and that was amazing. Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
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