'The Truth about Tigers' now in Marathi

PUNE: Educational documentary film 'The Truth about Tigers' has now been dubbed into Marathi. The award-winning film by Shekar Dattatri has already been dubbed into Tamil, Kannada and Hindi languages. Dattatri told TOI that at present the focus is on dubbing the film in Telegu, Malayali and Bengali.
The well-researched film focuses on tiger's life, the impact of human activities on it, conservation issues and how one can contribute in his own way to save the wild cat.Insights for the film were taken from leading tiger experts Ullas Karanth of the Wildlife Conservation Society and wildlife crime fighter Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.
The documentary was first screened at last year's Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival in Pune. Since then more than 25,000 copies of it have been distributed. "The Truth about Tigers' is a non-profit, non-commercial, non-broadcast film that is intended solely for free screenings and distribution," said Dattatri.
The film-maker thinks there is a need to revamp the forest protection system and protect the tigers and the prey population from poachers. There are about 1,400 tigers left in the country. If the prey population increases, then the tiger population will rise too. There is a need for political will and public support, he added. "At present, there are too many developmental pressures like coal mining, widening of highway, dams, among others on forest land. This is cutting off the vital wildlife corridors,'' he said.
Dattatri said that documentary films reach a smaller audience, as compared with commercial films. "Even if it is screened on television, the reach is not on a wider scale because of an array of channels available. But the advent of internet has been a boon to documentary dissemination. One can now watch it online. And this will catch up on a wider scale,'' he said.
Other challenges are funding and distribution network. "There are channels which are not interested in documentaries and they have their own in-house documentaries. They rarely commission films from outside. Besides, documentaries of high quality are expensive to make," Dattatri said.
About 'The Truth about Tigers', he said there was no fresh filming and the footages were taken from libraries and archives and edited at the Trust for Environmental Education, Chennai. Donations have come from well-wishers which made it possible to distribute DVDs free of cost. To watch it online one has to log onto 'www.truthabouttigers.org.'
The other critically acclaimed documentary made by Dattatri is 'SOS - Save Our Sholas' that showcases the amazing diversity of life in the 'Shola' forests of the southern Western Ghats.