LA meets Mumbai in US film-maker’s docu on big cats

Los Angeles and Mumbai—thousands of miles apart with lots to share, including the same screen space. Here’s a film which has no it...

Los Angeles and Mumbai—thousands of miles apart with lots to share, including the same screen space. Here’s a film which has no item number, nor Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone calling the shots. Though film-maker Toby Beach would have liked that immensely, his film has Deputy Conservator of Forests Ashok Khadse in the lead with leopards and mountain lions as supporting actors.

The film is set in LA and Mumbai since both cities face a big cat problem. Mountain lions are making inroads into the human population in LA while leopards are claiming victims near the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Mumbai. Enough to make a film, thought US-based Beach—more so since Mumbai is his favourite city. In September and October, the producer/director of Brightside Films Ltd shot in Mumbai and a bit in Junnar for the Indian side of the story.

Says Beach, ‘‘The idea that these large predators were still living in the city fascinates me. It raises all kinds of questions about the management of people, animals and wilderness in the new mega-cities.’’

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The Mumbai side of the story is very much about a city in crisis. Beach looks at the problem there through the eyes of a range of people who are confronting the leopard issue—from forest officials to families of survivors, to those who have come face-to-face with the leopards and survived. ‘‘In order to understand how such a crisis is managed, I decided to work with Khadse. He is without doubt India’s top leopard wrangler and I follow him as he traps the big cats in and around the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and succeeds in stopping the killings. We work to understand why the killings are happening, how they can be stopped, and what the long-term challenges are for a city like Mumbai with such vast wilderness that is still home to large predators,’’ adds Beach. He has spent his childhood in India, in Delhi and at the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, UP.

The Los Angeles story looks at the issue of urban development in and around mountain lion habitat. ‘‘There are thousands of mountain lions in California. Areas close to Los Angeles recently experienced two very violent attacks by these big cats. I look at the problem through the eyes of ecologist Ray Sauvajot and his team at the National Park Service who are tracking four mountain lions around LA’s suburbs. We learn what they are finding out about how these big cats adapt to urban life and whether mountain lions are changing their habits and becoming less fearful of man,’’ he says.

The film will be broadcast in the US on the National Geographic Channel and later in India.

Beach is also working on the desert in Rajasthan and documenting how local villagers build houses using earth and local plants. He has won several awards for other films. What next? ‘‘To make more films in India,’’ he grins.