Indian wildlife films win WildScreen awards

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*Attenborough's film bags Wildscreen Panda award *

*Thursday, October 19, 2006*

*Bristol: Britain's prestigious Wildscreen 2006 Panda Award went to David

Attenborough's film " Life in the Underground " while Indian filmmakers won

two of the 22 awards.

 

Attenborough's film dealt with small creatures of the forest. It was

co-produced by the BBC Natural History unit along with Animal Planet.

 

In a ceremony running over five hours on Wednesday evening, India's Bahar

Dutt won the award for her news expose, " The Last Dance of the Sarus " , which

depicts how a Chief Minister in India's Uttar Pradesh was allegedly

proposing to ruin the natural habitation of the Sarus cranes to build an

airstrip.

 

The second award for films from developing countries went to " Cherub of the

Mist " , produced by India's Bedi Films. The film is about the red panda,

which has been facing extinction due to large-scale poaching by cowherds

from Nepal.

 

Bahar Dutt, who works for CNN-IBN, was not present to receive the award. The

award for the " Cherub of the Mist " was received by the second generation of

Bedi brothers, 27-year-old twins Vijay and Ajay, sons of renowned wildlife

filmmaker Naresh Bedi.

 

" The award will help the survival of the young red pandas of India, which

unlike the giant pandas of China have not received much attention " , Vijay

Bedi told IANS.

 

He said that following the making of the film, West Bengal Chief Minister

Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had come forward to help protect the red panda by

banning and getting a fence erected to prevent the movement of cowherds

(poachers) from Nepal.

 

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* " The movie has been causing considerable ripples in the festival and among

viewers who have seen it in India and overseas; that will hopefully help the

cause of the panda, which currently number only 1,500 " , Vijay Bedi said.

 

The Bedi brothers said they had taken over the mantle of active film making

from their father, Naresh Bedi, who had won the Green Oscar in 1984 for his

film on 'Ganges Ghariyal' (Crocodile).

 

The red panda film took three years in the making and cost around Rs. 8

million. It has reportedly achieved breakeven through exhibition overseas.

 

This year's selection had several surprises with the BBC and some other

major wildlife film funding organisations winning laurels for their efforts.

 

 

" With more funds flowing in for films made in developed countries, entries

from developing countries with a much lower budget are bound to be at an

disadvantage, " one of the organisers said.

 

Wildscreen 2006 awards is celebrating its 26th year and is ready to usher in

changes, said Harriet Nimmo, the chief executive of Wildscreen.*