The city and neighbouring Puducherry are set to feature in an international film on yoga, being shot by famed art historian Benoy K. Behl.
The film crew has been travelling to every corner of the country and, so far, has about 25 hours of yoga on tape.
They plan to shoot for 60 more hours and then condense the recordings to a 50-minute video.
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In Chennai for the past three days, the crew has filmed over 10 asanas at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Mandaveli.
“We have been travelling to renowned yoga schools and talking to teachers, including B.K.S. Iyengar in Pune. We also spoke to a Tibetian monk about yoga in Buddhism. In Chennai we met S. Sridharan, trustee and senior faculty of the Krishnamachari Yoga Mandiram,” Mr. Behl said.
The team has been recording whatever it could as, according to Mr. Behl, “the search must be complete and true.”
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“The spiritual part of yoga cannot be disassociated from it; but spiritualism has nothing to with religion, which is a western concept. Yoga is also not a physical exercise,” says Mr. Behl, who has to his credit at least 100 documentaries.
Along with a long-time friend and yoga practitioner, Rahul Bansal, who is also funding the film, Mr. Behl is also recording conversations with dancers, musicians, doctors who will talk about the benefits of yoga.
“It is after all the Indian vision that permeates everything in life. It began a few thousand years ago and intellectuals in our country decided that the external world did not lead to happiness and they turned to look inside,” explained Mr. Behl, whose crew will be moving on to Puducherry on Wednesday.