Richie Mehta at the trailer launch event
Mumbai:
Filmmaker Richie Mehta says he is attracted to issues that affect him and Poacher, which is about the illegal ivory trade in India, is one such story. The investigative crime series is based on the largest ivory poaching raid in Indian history from the perspective of forest officials and wildlife warriors.
The Prime Video series marks Mehta’s return to streaming after the critically acclaimed Netflix show Delhi Crime, which was inspired by the police investigation of the gang rape of a woman in Delhi in 2012. It won the International Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
“I generally choose subjects as per my conscience… That’s why I did Delhi Crime and certainly that’s why I did Poacher. So, I as a human being am guided by what I want to spend my time on In this case, I wanted to spend my time with these amazing wildlife crime fighters on whom the story is based,” Mehta told PTI in an interview.
The filmmaker said he was impressed by the selfless dedication of wildlife fighters trying to stop elephant poaching.
“People are willing to die for it (to save elephants). I was very impressed by that. And it’s not like they’re going to get a state funeral or recognition and even if they were in front of the elephant, Even then there would have been a possibility of elephant.” Just step on them and kill them.
Mehta said, “There’s no glory at the end of it, except what your heart tells you to do. I’ve never experienced this type of altruism in the world, which is why I think it’s worth telling. “
Mehta praised the efforts of filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves who made the documentary Elephant Whispers on elephant conservation. The Netflix documentary won the Academy Award in the Best Documentary Short Film category last year.
This victory drew the world’s attention to wildlife conservation.
“I’m very happy with the recognition that film has received, and it deserves it. For me, there can be no limit to the number of stories that revolve around conservation. The difference is that documentaries usually have a set There is an audience.” Help more people get into it, but it’s a specific type of filming and there’s nothing like it that I can think of, conservation-based drama or thriller,” said the Indian-Canadian filmmaker.
Mehta said he incorporated elements of crime and thriller to highlight the dark world of poaching in India. “It’s a real story. But we’re using crime and thriller as tools to talk about something bigger.” He added.
The eight-part series stars Nimisha Sajayan, Roshan Mathew and Dibyendu Bhattacharya.
For research, Mehta contacted Delhi-based NGO The Wildlife Trust of India, which introduced him to wildlife crime fighters.
The characters played by Roshan and Dibyendu are based on real-life individuals, while Nimisha’s character is an amalgamation of people working in the Kerala Forest Department.
Actor-producer Alia Bhatt is the executive producer of the series, which will premiere on February 23.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
