BENGALURU: Thashwini Karumbaiah’s documentary film Kodavas – The Highlanders is a deep insight into the rich culture and heritage of Kodavas, renowned as a warrior clan. Hailing from the same community, the filmmaker wanted to document it in some way.
As a passion project, the film took more than two years to be made. “When the British came, they changed the name to Coorg, it is actually Kodagu,” says Karumbaiah adding, “As a Kodavati, I wanted to preserve our culture and attire and thought the best way to document all of it was in the form of a film.”
The film, which begins with a narration, might come across more like a movie than a documentary, and Karumbaiah says it was a deliberate effort. “I wanted to experiment with the documentary. Usually, documentaries are shot in a very different way but I come from a background where we do films and serials, so I wanted to make it cinematic. At one glance, people might feel there is a story behind every chapter. But it is a documentary,” says Karumbaiah about the film that was co-produced by Vaishno Studios.
Hailing from Kodagu, Karumbaiah has heard many stories in the family about the community. However, the research for the film helped her discover many things that she had not known. “For example, when we started talking about battles that happened in Kodagu, we realised that a lot of them have gone unnoticed. It’s only orally been passed down from the older generations. We came across some of these stories which were interesting,” she adds. Although the film started as a passion project with no commercial idea in mind, Karumbaiah is hoping to screen it at an international film festival next year.