Sanjeev Sivan, who won the Vasudha award at this edition of the IFFI for his documentary ‘Underground Inferno’, is yet to recover from the surprise. Till late into Wednesday night, when his flight landed at the Thiruvananthapuram airport, Sanjeev was totally in the dark about his achievement.
“In fact, I went to the Goa festival in connection with the screening of ‘Kesu’, the movie directed by my father. But, I didn’t know that my documentary was also going to be screened there,’’ Sanjeev told ‘Expresso’ on Thursday. It was the National Geographic channel that had sent the documentary to the IFFI.
The documentary, ‘Underground Inferno’, is about the shocking lives of around 50,000 villagers at Jhariya in Jharkhand. They live in an area full of coal mines. “Such areas are very much vulnerable to fire. You can see smoke in one room of a house, while in the next room the members are seen doing their daily chores,’’ said Sanjeev. The fire, which travels beneath the ground through a stretch of more than 550 km, can eat whatever on its way.
The 52-minute documentary portrays a railway station and railway track which were swallowed by fire, among several other symbols that will haunt you once you view the film.
Sanjeev, who has been active in the field of documentary-making since 2005, is now part of Colosceum, a documentary production house under TV-18. Along with Raghav Behl and Rajdeep Sardesai, Sanjeev is busy bringing out quality productions based on Indian themes having a universal appeal.
“Though there are a number of talented young filmmakers in Kerala, they are not using the opportunities. There is a huge market for documentaries based on Indian stories that will easily connect with a global audience,’’ said Sanjeev, who has already made 12 documentaries for National Geographic, Discovery, Al Jazeera International and NHK Japan during this year itself.
“It is the duty of the Chalachitra Academy to find out such avenues and help young filmmakers market their work,’’ he said. “But, sadly, here the Academy’s role is confined to organising an annual film festival,’’ he was a little critical.
Sanjeev, who has also won international laurels at Stuttgart Festival and Tokyo International Festival, can’t send any of his films to the State film awards. “The rule here stipulates that only those documentaries shot in film will be eligible to be considered. My works are on advanced digital platform and they will be treated with TV award entries only,’’ said Sanjeev.
Sanjeev Sivan, son of veteran filmmaker Sivan and younger brother of filmmakers Santhosh Sivan and Sangeeth Sivan, took to documentary making after attempting a Malayalam movie in 2005. “After ‘Aparichithan’, I realised that I didn’t fit into the industry,’’ he said.
He was given an opportunity to direct a documentary on Bollywood by Rajeev Mehrotra.
“Then I sent an idea to National Geographic. It was the real turning point. My first work for the channel ‘Actung Baby’ is about the lives of Indo-Aryans living in Leh-Ladakh,’’ said Sanjeev, who has shot a number of documentaries like ‘Deadman Walking’ for the channel which won critical acclaim.
The future? “I actually see documentary making as my pre-production era. In the coming year, you will see me as a Bollywood filmmaker,’’ said Sanjeev. He has been commissioned by Reliance Big Pictures to do three Bollywood movies in 2010.
“The work of the first movie ‘Super Hero’ will begin next month. It will have Ritesh Deshmukh in the lead,’’ he said.
Sanjeev will leave for Italy on Friday to attend the Florence Film Festival. His documentary ‘The Aryan Saga’ will be screened there next week.
b_sreejan@expressbuzz.com