How Indian documentaries grabbed global spotlight
- Sneha Bhura
- TIMESOFINDIA.COMUpdated: Feb 2, 2023, 16:04 IST IST
At the Oscars in 2007, comedian Jerry Seinfeld angered the tribe of documentary filmmakers by dubbing the genre as “incredibly depressing”. He might have done them a huge disservice, but the truth is that, for long, that’s how non-fiction films were perceived in India. After all, how could they compete with the glossy productions that Bollywood churned out, replete with song-dance routines and exotic locales? But now, thanks to streaming platforms and an audience that is looking for more meaningful and factual stories in the age of fake news, Indian documentaries are seeing a renaissance.
The global recognition is proof of that. Shaunak Sen’s ‘All That Breathes’, a story about two brothers who make it their life’s mission to save injured raptors in polluted Delhi, and Kartiki Gonsalves’ ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, a deeply moving tale about a couple parenting two abandoned baby elephants in Tamil Nadu, are both nominees for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short, respectively. The hope is that one of them will bring home an Oscar this year. Sarvnik Kaur’s ‘Against The Tide’ also premiered in the competition section of Sundance this month and won a Special Jury Award for Verite Filmmaking. Rintu Thomas, who, along with Sushmit Ghosh, notched up India’s first documentary nomination at the Academy Awards with ‘Writing with Fire’ last year, says festivals like Sundance can make a huge difference. “These are amplifiers for independent films. When ‘Writing’ won two awards at Sundance, a first for an Indian feature doc, it was a phenomenal springboard,” says Thomas. The film went on to win some 35 global awards after Sundance. She points out that most of these internationally acclaimed documentaries have been produced by the filmmakers/directors themselves. “One can hope that this excitement for documentaries will translate into producers increasing their threshold of risk for non-fiction and curate genuine collaborations,” says Thomas.
The global recognition is proof of that. Shaunak Sen’s ‘All That Breathes’, a story about two brothers who make it their life’s mission to save injured raptors in polluted Delhi, and Kartiki Gonsalves’ ‘The Elephant Whisperers’, a deeply moving tale about a couple parenting two abandoned baby elephants in Tamil Nadu, are both nominees for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short, respectively. The hope is that one of them will bring home an Oscar this year. Sarvnik Kaur’s ‘Against The Tide’ also premiered in the competition section of Sundance this month and won a Special Jury Award for Verite Filmmaking. Rintu Thomas, who, along with Sushmit Ghosh, notched up India’s first documentary nomination at the Academy Awards with ‘Writing with Fire’ last year, says festivals like Sundance can make a huge difference. “These are amplifiers for independent films. When ‘Writing’ won two awards at Sundance, a first for an Indian feature doc, it was a phenomenal springboard,” says Thomas. The film went on to win some 35 global awards after Sundance. She points out that most of these internationally acclaimed documentaries have been produced by the filmmakers/directors themselves. “One can hope that this excitement for documentaries will translate into producers increasing their threshold of risk for non-fiction and curate genuine collaborations,” says Thomas.
