It was 10 years ago when Kiranmayi first visited Vedurupattu, a village in Nellore district. The village had about 150 settlements and three huge trees which become home to all kinds of migratory birds; Kiran was fascinated by the relationship between the villagers and the birds and had always wanted to follow it up with a full length documentary.
After years of dabbling in various genres of documentary film-making, completing an MFA from York University and a Ph.D from the University of Nottingham, giving seminars, lectures and talks, Kiran is finally ready to complete what she had started. “I hope to finish the project by March and figure out where to screen it,” she smiles.
The documentary about migratory birds coming to different parts of Andhra Pradesh will be a little over 60 minutes. Research is important while making documentary films. “Although you can’t expect to cover all bases with research alone, it certainly helps for you to know facts about the region,” says Kiran.
“I used to visit the Attenborough Sanctuary a lot and I always thought of coming back to India to make a film,” says Kiran. She set out with Chennai-based cameraman Prince and Teja who took care of the sounds to various parts in the country to capture migratory birds on camera. Kiran is hopeful of getting Max, a musician from the UK, to make the background score for her film.
Kiran and team travelled to vastly different locations including the lesser known Kondakarla Ava near Visakhapatnam, which is a fresh water body. “Birds from Siberia fly down to this place,” she says. “It isn’t going to be like a National Geographic documentary but more of my perspective on migration. I hope to weave a couple of things in this documentary,” says Kiran.
Kiran has made many documentary films over the years, some commissioned and some out of her own accord.
One of her first documentaries was on her grandmother. She also made a documentary on the poet Ismail. “I grew up reading Ismail’s poetry and I was moved by his imagist and cinematic writing and decided to make a feature on him,” she says. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Ramoji Academy of Film and Television (RAFT) where she teaches film directing and documentary production. Kiran hopes to make a feature film by the end of the year. One of the most daunting processes about film-making is finding producers. “With feature films, it’s a different ball game, I’ll have to be more prepared,” she concludes.
