DOK Industry Podcast 2024
India Spotlight: Examining the Capture of India’s Most Dreaded Bandit and One Woman’s Journey for her Billion Indian Women
In this two-part episode, we talk with producer Apoorva Bakshi, director Selvamani Selvaraj and social impact pioneer Srishti Bakshi. We delve deeper into relevant topics that are a big part of India's social, political and economic structures.
Part 1: The critically acclaimed documentary limited series, “The Hunt for Veerappan”, directed by Selvamani Selvaraj, puts a spotlight on the life of India's forest king Veerappan who was involved in many brutal crimes from the 90s until the early 2000s.
Part 2: The feature documentary “WOMB: Women of My Billion” follows the experience of a young woman, Srishti, and her 3800km journey from Kanyakumari (South India) to Kashmir (North India) over 240 days. The film highlights the crisis and shows the plight, dreams, rights and fight against all forms of violence.
Hear Part 1 of the episode with Selvamani Selvaraj and Apoorva Bakshi on “The Hunt for Veerappan” today. Part 2 with Srishti and Apoorva Bakshi will be coming soon.
Length: 40'3''
Recorded on July 11
Moderator: Sunil Sadarangani
Sunil Sadarangani is a Mumbai-born, Los Angeles-based award-winning producer and writer with 15+ years of experience in international film and TV production and is passionate about creating and promoting diverse and inclusive stories for global audiences.
He is the co-founder and former director of programming of the Ojai Short Film Festival and showcased Academy Award-nominated and winning films and episodic series. As a producer, Sunil develops, produces, and executive produces English, Hindi, and Spanish language content, award-winning feature and short films, such as “The Answer”, “How Much Do You Want to Know”, “In Transit”, “Blind”, and “Nova”. Sunil is also a contributing writer for New York Amsterdam News, Deadline Hollywood, and American Kahani, covering filmmakers and artists of colour at major film festivals and industry award events.
The California State Senate has recognised him for his ongoing commitment to creativity and innovation in the Los Angeles community.
Guests
Apoorva Bakshi is an International EMMY Award-winning producer, most notably known for her NFLX Series “Delhi Crime”; widely watched “The Hunt for Veerappan”; critically acclaimed “Womb & Wakhri”; National Award-winning films, “Shut Up Sona & Leeches”.
She serves as a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Golden Karavan, Awedacious Originals, and Project “Fuel” carving her niche as one of the youngest producers of prolific South Asian productions.
An accomplished story engineer, Apoorva collaborates with auteurs & filmmakers and developed a robust slate of genre-defying projects. A fierce guardian of independent voices, Apoorva has also successfully acquired and distributed over 50+ award-winning independents.
A professional sharpshooter and formally trained Bharatnatyam dancer, Apoorva shuttles between SF & Mumbai and loves to backpack the world while not in the air.
Filmography:
“The Hunt for Veerappan”, 2023, Executive Producer
“WOMB: Women of My Billion”, 2024, Producer
“The Glassworker”, 2024, Executive Producer
Selvamani assisted Ang Lee on “Life of Pi” and Santosh Sivan on his independent feature “I am not Sita” before writing, directing and producing his first independent feature “Nila”, which was the first Tamil film to screen at Raindance Film Festival and one of the first Tamil films to be acquired by Netflix.
His recent work is the Netflix original documentary series, “The Hunt for Veerappan”, which he wrote and directed. He is currently filming a Tamil feature titled “Kaantha” produced by Rana Dagubatti with Dulquer Salman as the lead actor. Selvamani takes tremendous joy in the process of finding stories and expressing them in a deeply personal manner using the tools of filmmaking. He intends to continue being honest and faithful to the process and improve every day.
Filmography:
“The Hunt for Veerappan”, 2023, Director
“Nila”, 2016, Writer, Director
Srishti Bakshi embarked on a 3800 km on-foot journey across India from Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu (South India) to Srinagar, Kashmir (North India) over 240 days, which she concluded in May 2018.
On her journey, Srishti met over a hundred thousand people in person, sensitising them to the gender-based violence and inequality in her country. She aimed to combat it by empowering women with confidence, leadership skills and, most importantly, digital and financial literacy that would allow them easy access to communication, information and financial independence.
Srishti is a UN SDG Changemaker of the Year, UN WOMEN Champion of Change, TED Speaker, and UK's Commonwealth Point of Light Winner.
Filmography:
“WOMB - Women of My Billion”, 2021. Film Website
