Two filmmakers figure in Limca Book of Records

GUWAHATI, January 16: Two Assamese women - Rita Banerjee and Shibani Choudhury - are doing commendable jobs as an editor and a scriptwriter-cum-assistant director respectively, in one of the world's most acclaimed natural history filmmakers company - the Riverbank Studios, headed by the famous filmmaker Mike Pandey. The team has so far produced over 20 films since 1991 on wildlife, environment, social and developmental issues and also on children education. Two of its films - The Last Migration - Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja and the Shores of Silence - Whale Sharks in India, have won the Green Oscar at the Wildscreen 1994 and 2000 festivals respectively. Wildscreen is the world's premier festival for films on natural world held biennially in Bristol, UK. Limca Book of Records also mentioned Rita and Shibani as the first Indian women wildlife film makers. The Last Migration was the first Asian film to win a Green Oscar instituted by the Wildscreen Trust in association with the WWF, UK. Shores of Silence was one of the 425 international entries which were submitted to the Wildscreen 2000 festival. Altogether 47 of these films were nominated for the final awards and of them, 17 films received the Wildscreen Panda - The Green Oscar, for various categories. The Shores of Silence, - a hard-hitting portrayal of the slaughter and trade of whale sharks on the western coast of India, won the Television Trust for Environment (TVE) award and was also nominated for the animal planet category in the festival. The film also received a tremendous response at the Wildscreen festival and could draw the attention of conservation groups all over the world. Wildscreen Panda is considered to be the highest honour for a natural history filmmaker. Many of the world's renowned natural history television filmmakers like Sir David Attenborough of the UK, Jim Murray of Canada, Nikolai Drozdhov of Russia and Alan Roof of Kenya were awarded earlier with the Widescreen Panda. Shores of Silence is the first Indian film to focus on a large marine species - the whale sharks. It was shot under difficult conditions and took almost three years to complete. It was aimed at moulding public opinion for policies to conserve this largest fish, some of which grow even 60 feet in length, and, has a life span of 100 years or more. Though in other parts of the world, this fish is treated as an endangered species, in India, particularly in the Saurashtra coast between Veraval and Okha, it is hunted for the oil of its liver, soft white meat and the fin, usually between May and June every year and at the alarming rate of four to five a day! While the oil from the liver of the fish is used by the fishermen of the Bidiva community in Gujarat to make their boats water proof and, on occasions, sold to the shoe polish manufacturers, the meat of the fish along with the fin, is exported to the Southeast. A single whale shark can now provide on an average, around Rs 1.3 lakh to its exporter and of it around Rs 20,000 goes to the team of the fishermen catching it. The 1972 Wildlife Protection Act of the country has not made the whale shark a protected species. The Last Migration was filmed on the herd of the elephant, which was captured in December 1993, in a teak plantation of Sarguja district, after a six-year-long futile exercise to rehabilitate them, by the Madhya Pradesh forest department. The herd was originally displaced from the Singhbhum forest of Bihar as a result of the mining operations and deforestation there. The herd had originally 18 members and had their numbers coming down to 12 when captured in 1993. The captured elephants were trained and pressed into service in Madhya Pradesh forest department. Mike Pandey (51), has been in the line for over 25 years now. He filmed the Tigers of Ranthambore for the BBC in the early 1970s and also worked on several Mumbai film productions like Rezia Sultan and Betab. In 1991 when Rita and Shibani, both 31, joined Mike, he returned to wildlife filmmaking. The team produced on its own, both the Last Migration and the Shores of Silence. The second one is being telecast by the National Geographic Channel. The team is backed by veteran technicians Lalman and Rajinder Pratap. The team is currently producing Earth Matters for the Doordarshan, covering all environmental issues of the country. Shibani co-anchors the show with Mike Pandey, while Rita is the producer of the show. Earth Matters has covered several topics concerning Assam - like the rapid urbanisation of Guwahati, wildlife expert Rabin Banerjee, India Carbon Orchid Farm, Pigmy hog breeding centre and the Pigmy hog conservation programme, among others. Rita, the grand daughter of Malati Baruah, and, Shibani, the great grand daughter-in-law of late Manik Choudhury of the city, also do the camera work for the Riverbank Studios productions.