People travel miles to witness wildlife. But what if that wildlife is already closer than they think? That question sits at the core of filmmaker-photographer Kalyan Varma’s Wild Tamil Nadu, which looks beyond the elephants and tigers associated with the state to uncover a less-seen world of rare mammals, wetlands, forests and even desert-like landscapes.
Varma, whose previous docu-film Wild Karnataka won him a National Award, says Tamil Nadu was an ‘underdog’, waiting to be explored. Despite spending nearly two decades travelling through the state, he found that its wildlife remained largely underrepresented. “Karnataka and a lot of other states have good ecotourism infrastructure. But Tamil Nadu is one state where that infrastructure has been very weak,” he points out, adding that wildlife tourism in Tamil Nadu is often synonymous with Mudumalai and Masinagudi, while much of the state remains outside the popular imagination of wildlife enthusiasts. He adds that there is considerable biodiversity waiting to be documented. The gap he noticed initially became the starting point for Wild Tamil Nadu, which recently hit theatres and has been nominated for the Wildscreen Festival 2026.
Wild Karnataka was structured typically like any other wildlife film; however, for Wild Tamil Nadu, Varma found an unlikely narrative framework in Sangam literature. Thousands of years ago, Sangam literature divided the Tamil landscape into five distinct worlds – mountains, forests, agricultural lands, deserts and oceans. Varma found this ancient classification a fitting way to tell the story of Tamil Nadu’s wildlife. “We decided to follow Sangam Literature’s approach to classify Tamil Nadu’s biodiversity. The western part – the mountains – is well documented. Even the eastern part – the oceans and wetlands like Pulicat lake – is also well known. But the heartland of Tamil Nadu was not well documented, and there were barely any people working there. That was the hardest part – to find nature stories,” Varma notes.
Among the discoveries made during the making of the one-hour documentary, one stood out for Varma – the Madras hedgehog. The elusive mammal had been so rarely seen that he eventually connected with a network of poachers and asked them to alert the team if they encountered the animal in their traps. “It’s an animal probably fewer than 200 people before me have ever seen. People almost thought it was extinct in southern India. Seeing that in front of me was definitely a humbling experience,” he says. He also found dunes and desert-like landscape in southern Tamil Nadu, in Theri Kaadu near Thoothukudi, which reminded him of Rajasthan.
The film also brought together popular actor Aravind Swamy and Grammy Award-winning composer Ricky Kej. Kej, a longtime collaborator of Varma’s, drew inspiration from Carnatic music for the soundtrack, while Swamy lent his much recognisable, deep voice to both the English and Tamil versions. Unlike Wild Karnataka, which featured David Attenborough, Varma wanted Wild Tamil Nadu to have a more local identity. “We were also very keen on having a Tamil version. My other work is mostly for international channels. But this is a story of Indians telling Indian stories in an Indian way for the global audience,” he says, adding, “We were able to tell stories of lesser-known animals which really gave us the freedom and that’s what we are proud of with the film.”
Around 80 per cent of the species featured in the film can be found in places close to people rather than only in remote national parks. “A lot of people across India are discovering Animal Planet and learning about African lions or jaguars in South America, etc. But I want people to know that there is an amazing wildlife in their backyard. The purpose of the film is to make people fall in love with nature. And when they do and issues arise, they would eventually do something about it,” he notes.