KOCHI: On a Monday morning, documentary film-maker Chaitali Mukherjee was travelling through a forest, moving towards Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh. It was pitch dark. Inside the Toyota Qualis, Chaitali was sitting with a few crew members and the driver. Though they had been travelling for a long time, they never crossed a vehicle. Chaitali started feeling apprehensive.
The locals of the village where they were shooting had warned her that it was not safe to travel at night due to the presence of Naxals.
Soon, at a distance, she saw several men and women standing on the road. They were wearing Army fatigues and held AK-47 guns. They waved the vehicle to a stop. Chaitali stepped out and told the people they were a camera crew on a project.
They told her to wait. At one side, in a clearing, the Naxals were giving a speech to the villagers. It was only after the meeting was over, three hours later, that Chaithali and others were allowed to leave. “I felt so relieved. It was a close shave. Anything could have happened,” says Chaitali, at her hotel in Kochi. She was in town to conduct a workshop named ‘Eyedeology’ for mass media students, aspiring filmmakers and professional videographers at Sacred Heart College, Thevara. This was conducted by Artfluenz in collaboration with SH School of Communication.
Chaitali is one of India’s leading documentary filmmakers. In the last 20 years, she has made 30 films, out of which 15 are stored in 400 film libraries worldwide.
Chaitali won the 2013 Asian Pitch for her documentary ‘My Land is Burning’. She won New York Films and Video Award for the film ‘Himalayan Tribes: Pure Love Pure Sex” that narrates the polyandry and polygamy among the Kinnauri, Gaddi and Jaunsari tribes.
Some of the other subjects which Chaitali has tackled include human interest, anthropology, environment, rural lifestyle and sports. She has profiled Magsaysay Award winners Mahabir Pun, Ela Bhat, Kailash Satyarthi, Prakash and Mandakini Amte. She has also done a documentary on Everest climber Santosh Yadav.
Her films have been shown on the National Geographic, ARTE France, France 5, Al Jazeera and MediaCorp channels. However, she points out that Indian media gives little focus to documentaries.
“We are still watching Nat Geo and Discovery. Why don’t we have an exclusive Indian documentary channel? Everybody comes to India, shoots and goes back with our stories. Indian filmmakers don’t get funds. Most of the time, we have to put up a fight. Foreigners easily get permission to shoot anywhere, even inside Tihar Jail. The authorities don’t think we are as good as foreigners,” she says.
“You have to be knowledgeable and curious about the world. You have to look out for unique stories that people do not know if you want to get a world audience. Many Indian filmmakers choose subjects like poverty, which have already appeared in the media,” says the photographer, who has an MPhil in Modern History, when asked about the virtues needed to be a good visual artist. Chaitali is planning to make a film in association with Artfluenz on Kochi and its rich history, heritage, cuisine, and important cultural festivals like Kochi-Muziris Biennale.