‘It is mind-boggling that local people are capable of protecting wildlife to this extent’

Rama Devadiga, an inhabitant of Yellapura, remembers a daunting story from his previous: how he was attacked by a bear whereas biking to a temple. “I’d see bears often, and they were always harmless,” he explains in author and poet Sourabha Rao’s new documentary, Huliyappa. In this case, he says the bear’s two cubs have been sleeping on the trail, and he didn’t see the mom strategy him. “It was when she gripped my cycle carrier, and I turned around that I realised she was there,” says Rama, whose head nonetheless bears the jagged scars of that encounter.

Rama’s story was notably poignant for Sourabha, the co-founder of multimedia manufacturing home, Owletter Creations, who couldn’t assist however discover how matter-of-factly Rama described this incident.

“He doesn’t play the victim card or use the word trauma,” she says. This was somebody who had “knocked on the door of death” however managed to be informal and matter-of-fact about it. The stoic angle, she says, is true of many local people who stay in shut contact with wildlife.

“There is a sense of dignity to their resilience and endurance that evokes a lot of respect,” she says, one thing that the movie highlights too. “These people do not glorify their tolerance and love for wildlife. There is no sloganeering or chest-thumping.”

Without romanticising the implications of the co-existence of people and animals, she nonetheless feels that “it is mind-boggling that they are capable of protecting wildlife to this extent. I still can’t wrap my head around it.”

According to her, local people do perceive people want to respect animals because it is their house and have been there for an extended time than people. “They never use words or phrases that can be troublesome,” she says. Instead of saying issues like “dangerous” or “beast,” whereas referring to these animals, they are saying that the animal took away cattle or a canine, provides Sourabha, who, as a author herself, is totally conscious that “your thought informs your language and your language informs your thought.”

Worshipping predators

Huliyappa, which premiered on the Bangalore International Centre (BIC) on June 7, explores this co-existence of indigenous people and wildlife. Set within the lush inexperienced landscapes of Uttara Kannada, which is flanked by the Sahyadris, higher generally known as the Western Ghats, a world biodiversity hotspot and a UNESCO World Heritage website, the movie is a testomony to the pure magnificence of the panorama in addition to to the people, wildlife and cultural traditions it nurtures inside it.

“I am very fond of the Malenadu region. It is an amazing biodiversity hotspot, and I have been visiting it for nearly 10 years,” explains Sourabha, who first started occupied with this intersection of people and wildlife round 5 years in the past, whereas working with a pair of Bengaluru-based conservation organisations.

It was over an informal dialog with a good friend from this area that the concept for Huliyappa happened. “I was telling her how amazing it was that people worship predators,” she remembers. “And she was like, ‘ Hey, we do this too. Huliyappa is one of our deities, and we worship him during Deepavali.’ That is about it. There was no looking back for me,” says Sourabha, who would spend the subsequent 5 years traversing via the area, speaking to people.

“We went to some of the most remote villages you could find there, without cameras, just to establish trust,” she says, including that she wished to guarantee that all of the voices of totally different communities who lived within the area, together with the Brahmins, Devadigas, Vokkaligas, Gowlis and Siddis would change into half of the ultimate movie. “There is a whole gamut of communities there, and we have spoken to them all.”

She additionally witnessed the precise worship of Huliyappa, one thing the movie captures in all its glory, showcasing the pilgrimage of scores of people trudging via distant tree-flaked landscapes, coalescing at Huliyappa’s shrine. “The deified tiger of the human imagination,” as Sourabha places it. This is adopted by a posh ritual that consists of washing the deity with water after which milk, smearing it with butter, garlanding it with flowers, providing it coconuts and performing aarti on it.

“The first Deepavali, I recorded things on my phone because this entire ceremony was visually striking and the energy infectious.” Experiencing this ceremony shifted one thing in her, reveals Sourabha. “We see so much cynicism, rage and scepticism in urban lives and believe that the rational side of things must always overrule the rest of our being.”

She couldn’t assist however really feel that these people, nevertheless, solely appeared to fear about what they might do for his or her instant atmosphere. “They don’t want to change the world, like most of us , but instead, just wanted to take care of their backyard…what was all around them,” she says. “Where humans meet wildlife and vice-versa, a faith system like Huliyappa can play a vital role in maintaining harmony, despite adversity and losses.”

Making a movie

Sourabha Rao is a author, poet and the co-founder of a multimedia manufacturing home, Owletter Creations
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Sourabha and her workforce started taking pictures the movie final 12 months, self-funding your complete venture as a result of, “after sitting with this story for five years, I realised that I couldn’t wait any longer,” she says. “We just decided to look at it as an investment.”

She additionally selected to make the movie that includes people talking in several dialects of Kannada with English subtitles, “because the way Kannada helps you articulate a thought around an animal, a forest or a tree is very different from English.”

Additionally, for the the movie to have a direct connection between the people and the viewers, the workforce didn’t have a voiceover/narration, “to avoid the imposition of our interpretations and inferences,” factors out Sourabha, who ensured that a non-public screening was organized for every individual featured within the movie. “Before we premiered it for the world at large, we went to them. The film happened because of them.”

She describes the method of researching and making the movie as “a humbling experience that has eroded my cynicism.” Recounting how she was pressured to typically confront uncomfortable questions throughout her analysis, she says, “It helped me discard my own arrogance and pre-conceived notions and made me fall in love with our planet. We have probed the entire universe, and this is the only thing that contains all of us.” Sourabha has begun submitting the movie to varied festivals.

In the longer term, she hopes to inform extra such little-known tales she has gathered from the various years spent in this area. “I think I have at least three or four fascinating stories that can easily become films,” she says. “We are just looking for generous donors and funders who also want to tell these stories.”