Unless we mainstream environment, we cannot bring true change: Nila Madhab Panda

Climate change is a personal crisis as much as it is a global phenomenon, and filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda has been trying to capture its impacts as the intimate tragedies of people and communities in his latest works.

In critically acclaimed films like Kadvi Hawa (Bitter Wind, 2017) and Kalira Atita (Yesterday’s Past, 2020) his characters — people and elements of nature like the trees, hills and forests — share the same fate, that of helplessness and exploitation in the face of human greed.

His new work, The Jengaburu Curse, is a seven-episode thriller on SonyLiv about a fictional village upturned by a big-ticket mining project.

In a conversation with Down To Earth, Panda talks about films on environment, why he chooses fiction to address serious topics and the role of human innocence in the conservation of the Earth. Edited excerpts:

Preetha Banerjee (PB): You have called this the first Indian ‘cli-fi’ series. Why the classification?

Nila Madhab Panda (NMP): It was an important and conscious decision to position the series as a climate-fiction or ‘cli-fi’. The world’s population is growing, and with it our needs and greed. We are killing our planet and our own future with this greed.

For thousands of years, we have known the dangers of deforestation and environmental degradation. Now we say that it is affecting the climate and the climate is changing faster.

I wanted to take this issue and narrate it through an interesting story. Thus, we have a thriller that is based on characters such as winds, trees and the hill.

PB: Some of your films are based on environmental issues. Why do you feel the need to focus on this topic?

NMP: I find it really funny when I am asked this question by the media and people in general. Hundreds of films are made on a terrorist attack in Mumbai, the city’s underworld or police corruption. Because it starts affecting us as people, as creators.

But at the moment, climate change is affecting us day in and day out. In the morning, you wake up and read about some place that is drying up or another receiving unusual snowfall. This is all over the news.

I'm surprised that more people don't take up these stories. I'm probably more sensitive and so, I choose to tell these important stories while providing the same entertainment.

PB: Why do you choose fiction over documentary style to address important subjects like social and environmental problems?

NMP: I come from a documentary background. India still doesn’t have a large documentary crowd. The format generally only presents facts and evidence. It isn’t mass medium. Fiction delivers a story in a better form. It makes you emotional and helps understand a subject better – it creates facts with emotions. It makes you cry, it makes you laugh, it makes you angry.

'Jengaburu' means red hill. In the film, a little girl asks the father the meaning of Jengaburu. He says, red hill. “But it looks green,” she says. The father replies,”If you scratch it, it’ll appear red within.” The red, thus, refers to Jengaburu’s blood.

In this format, I could show everything is alive. The mountain is a living creature and so is the river. They are all part of a natural ecosystem. We cannot disturb any of these elements.

PB: The story has a strong political undertone. Please tell us more about this aspect of the writing.

NMP: We have tried to capture the whole geopolitical power game, how we don’t give importance to indigenous peoples.

India is the largest cinema producing country. Yet, we have never seen the real world of tribals in our cinema. And these are the people who have been the saviour of this country or any country.

I also wanted to show how systems become corrupt due to greed and without realising, the people in power do insurmountable damage to the world.

For example, in this series we see corrupt police officers killing people, supporting mines illegally. London-based corporate giants, in the story, are seen killing thousands of tribals for money and power. But in doing so, they’re also killing the river, plants and animals, and wiping out future generations of indigenous people.

PB: Environment has become the central theme of several works of art in recent years. Why do you think this is and do you see the trend in India as well? Are we doing it well?

NMP: Environment is still an issue of talk, of government, of study. Until and unless it becomes an issue for the general public, we can never bring the change.

There is a growing sensitivity towards the crisis. But unless we mainstream it, we can't change it. Cinema and politics are among the things that influence India the most. If we start talking about climate change in our films, the influence will be stronger and wider, so that beyond the damage we have done to Earth, we at least don’t cause further harm.

Also, if you can have a great thriller on the underworld and India’s independence, why is it so difficult to make a great fictional story on environment? They made films on similar topics like Toilet Ek Prem Katha or Padman, which were lovely as well as box-office hits.

PB: How has childhood influenced your writing?

NMP: I always talk about this thing called innocence. How much ever you grow, that innocence is essential.

We say innocence is there only in childhood. But there is something called human innocence. It means to have a fundamental part within you that won’t die down and thus, you will be more sensitive towards the life around you – the trees, water, other human beings that help you grow.

When we lose innocence and sensitivity, we try to acquire more power at the cost of anything. It doesn’t matter if the river or the forest is lost or 10 people die. And by cutting down trees and killing life, we are killing a generation, the next few generations.

So, the basic thing which I still go back to about my childhood is the importance of innocence. If you are innocent, you can survive longer.

Read more: 

Bheed: A brave, flimsy take

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