For the first time a South Indian film was shot amongst the wild of Kenya and specially the tribes of Maasai Mara. The Maasai tribes in Kenya are among one of the oldest living tribes still continuing their unique lifestyle with very less interference from various advent of technology. Yet they continue to live harmoniously with cattle and nature. For the tamil feature JALLIKATTU 5-23rd 2017, there is a special bond with the Maasai tribes and the cattle that links it to the bull used during the Jallikattu sport.
In relation to this the crew of the film along with the Director, producer and a mix of Indian and international crew shot extensively in the Maasai villages with the cattle and their traditional practices for close to a fortnight. Further team shot in the hot air balloons of Kenya and filmed the wild migration and also the big 5 animals – lion, Rhinoceros, Cape Buffalo, leopard and Elephants and in Kenya. It is again a first of its kind for a Tamil feature film.
The balloon safaris is a unique visual treat to the viewers as the film crew shot in it for close 5 days to capture the beautiful morning light and provide a new visual treat to the audience. With the change of the wind director we were able to cover a reasonable distance. We covered the passage along the Mara river and travelled up to the edge of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
The extensive research done on cattle and Civilisations from the National museum of Nairobi leads the history of travel of the cattle from East Africa( presently Kenya) to South India and there’s a direct match of the DNA of the cattle in East Africa among the tribes to that of the Kangeyam Jallikattu Bull. Further we were able to engage on deeper study with the help of Cattle researcher Karthikeyan Sivasenapathy on this.
The feature is in its early stage of post production. It is based on the recent student uprising in Marina beach in January that grabbed national attention and that subsequently led to the Ordinance to be passed in favour of the demands raised. Few pictures of the shoot and some behind the scenes are enclosed. The films is produced under the banner of Ahimsa Productions headed by Nirupama and it’s the directorial debut for Santhosh Gopal with the music of Ramesh Vinayaakam and camera by S Ka Bhoopathy and editor Kasi Vishwanathan among the strong technical team.
The film is co-produced by Ganapathy Murugesh, Jayapal Natesan from USA, along with Guru Saravanan from Singapore in association with Nirupama
For details contact
Santhosh – Director – +91 9840398958 – santhoshfilms@gmail.com
Nirupama – Producer -+919790468994 – nirupama.sunder@gmail.com
