An Indian Tale

Look within, that is the approach to his work of docu mentary filmmaker Robin Roy.
He likes to tap the reservoir of local life, culture, geography and more for an Indian audience.And it reflects in his oeuvre. Roy's documentary, Ganga: River Divine, has garnered the highest ratings in the history of Discovery India's broadcast in the country. He is also among the rare documentary filmmakers to be awarded at mainstream television award functions.But a bigger recognition came in the form of a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulating him on his most recent endeavour, Revealed: Rann Of Kutch.
“When the channel approaches me for a project, I am clear that I want to tell an Indi clear that I want to tell an Indian story for an Indian audience because there is a plethora of stories in the country that remains untold,“ explains Roy, 47. His collaboration with the channel began with Everest, followed by films on the Ganges, the Indian elections and most recently, on the Rann.
“We choose topics often based on what's contemporary. For instance, Himalayan Tsunami looked at the recent Uttarakhand floods. Similarly, World's Biggest Elections was developed during the recent parliamentary polls,“ he elaborates. While some topics may be newsier than others, the focus is to make the theme relevant to Indian viewers. “There is enough information around us but often we do not register it, so the purpose of my films is to ensure little nuggets of knowledge are put in a visually alluring format that's engaging and informative as well," explains Roy. For instance, while shooting for the film on Ganga, he trekked to Gaumukh, the source point of the glacier from which the Bhagirathi originates. “But when I looked at the records, I found that the temple, which should have been at the source, was 80km downstream at Gangotri. Through research, we discovered that the original glacier was actually downstream but over the centuries, it had shrunk and receded," he says.
Roy tries to infuse his films with stories unique to the area. For instance, in the Kutch film, as part of his research, he spent a night with the fakirani jats, one of the last surviving tribes of the region with unique musical traditions.“While the salt desert, its history and geography are important, these little vignettes add a distinct flavour,“ he adds.“The challenge lies in producing visual material which is different from tourism campaigns or promotional videos.“
According to him, it is important to highlight the finer details to add a human touch to a story. So, when he decided to film the Indian elections, he did not want to approach it from a political perspective but look at the mechanics of the process.“After all, it is the largest such exercise in the world. We must know what goes on behind the scenes,“ he states. Tying up with the Election Commission, Roy, who otherwise works with small units, employed nearly three units comprising three to five persons, at a time, across different regions to cover the mammoth exercise.“The kind of challenges I faced in this project were different. We travelled to nearly all parts of the country and trekked to interior Ladakh, where a polling station was being set up for 20 people in a small village. The officials trekked for days to reach the place, working against all odds, the challenges ranging from the presence of a landslide to the inability of taking your car to the highest motorable road.“
His entry into the documentary space happened after he spent a considerable amount of time in the advertising industry.“I did not attend a formal film school but the first year of my career at Prahlad Kakkar's ad agency taught me more than any film school could,“ he recounts. Roy graduated from St Stephen's College, University of Delhi, with a degree in English literature, which he believes was not the best choice for him. According to him, like many young students, he had enrolled in the college because he had a good score.“I later thought I should have opted for history instead.“ In college, he came across a call for production help for Pradeep Kishen and Arundhati Roy's feature film, In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones. “A few months on Pradeep's sets made me realize that my calling lay in the visual medium. Soon after, I moved to Mumbai where I worked with Prahlad for a year.“
During the year, Roy worked across all departments which opened his eyes to various processes involved in ad filmmaking.He then returned to Delhi to join the film department at Hindustan Thomson Associates (now JWT) and eventually headed the department, to quit in 1992.
He finally took up freelance filmmaking.“In my initial days as a freelancer, I made corporate ad films but I was still not enjoying my work,“ he says. About 10 years ago, he turned to documentaries, working on topics ranging from natural history and wildlife to mountaineering and food.
According to Roy, the USP of these films is their international quality at a competitive cost. “The use of local talent and technologies helps reduce the expenditure,“ he explains. However, a bigger budget would not only mean better production value but also more engagement and better research, he adds. Roy says that so much about the country still remains unknown. “For instance, the world knows the Rann as a salt desert.But at the site, I discovered a rare breed of camels that eat a certain kind of leaves for which they need to swim,“ he says, adding, “recently the National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources declared them as a unique breed which can swim. Details like these make a difference to our story telling.“The country is full of stories that need to be told, sums up Roy.