Twenty-nine year old Vikas Badiger is passionate about Bengaluru. The MBA graduate, with a degree from abroad, quit his job to start Faces of Bengaluru in 2016, where he chronicles stories of people and places of the IT city. “Faces of Bengaluru”, he says, “is about digging into the culture and history of our city. For instance, many of us are aware of Vidhyarthi Bhavan and its dosas. However, not many know the people who started the place. That is what Faces of Bengaluru does, present the hidden stories about this city.”
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Vikas’ latest project is the documentary, Kathegala Kanive - The Valley of Stories. The film, which was streaming on filmfreeway, has been selected for the Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival.
The documentary, Vikas says, is the result of a collaboration with Aravani Art Project, funded by the IFA (India Foundation for The Arts). “I taught photography for the Art for Transgenders project. While teaching transgender persons photography was a funded programme, the documentary is an independent project, scripted and directed and produced by Faces of Bengaluru.”
Through the Art for Transgenders project, Vikas says, they explored multiple arts forms of the city. “They participated in a play, the Karaga festival and also learnt photography. This was interesting for me as the idea of transgender person being behind the camera was new to me. Since many of them do not have an adequate education, this project was ideal to promote photography and create employment for transgender persons.The idea was one does not need a degree to become a photographer, one just needs passion.”
The project is a huge step in making people inclusive, says Vikas. ”When Poornima Sukumar from The Aravani Art Project connected with me, I was thrilled. She wanted me to capture a few moments and that is when I decided to make it into a documentary, encapsulating transgender persons’ journey of learning photography.”
The documentary includes personal narratives and what Bengaluru means to each them and how they see the city. “The aim of Kathegala Kanive was also to encourage transgender persons to go behind the camera, giving them a free hand to explore their creativity.”
Kathegala Kanive will be screened on February 6 at 3 pm, 4.30 pm and 6 pm at Vyoma Art Space, JP Nagar.
