Discovering Rann

Discovering Rann showcases the unique landscape and biodiversity of Rann of Kutch. It not only contains shots of beautiful animals and birds but also stands out due to the emphasis on showing the behaviour of wildlife, their unique adaptations to survive in the harsh desert ecosystem of kutch, the challenges faced including life and death struggles. The struggle of the species is also seen from the perspective of wildlife conservation.

It contains several small stories of the different species captured through painstaking efforts spread over many days and nights in different parts of the Rann. We often like to root for the underdog. In this case the species against whom the
In this case the audience would love to root for the small Indian desert fox which uses its strengths to come out victorious by successfully thwarting the attack of a much larger Eastern imperial eagle. The plight of the jackal as a scavenger much lower down the pecking order will also make people feel for it. The impact of feral dogs, the knowledge of which till date has been limited to biologists, has been highlighted and together with the impact of our wasteful ways can reach a wider audience and hopefully lead to change in habits.

This documentary aims to showcase the denizens of Rann of Kutch in a new light and hopes that viewers can learn some life lessons from it, especially from the battle strategies adopted by the protagonists in the Eastern Imperial Eagle vs Desert Fox battle.

Discovering Rann has been filmed with a Canon Cinema C300 camera.

  • Sabyasachi Patra
    Director
    A Call in the Rainforest, Jewels of Thane Creek
  • Sabyasachi Patra
    Writer
  • Sabyasachi Patra
    Producer
  • Sabyasachi Patra
    Cinematographer
  • MRUDUL GODBOLE
    Sound
  • Anil Nallan Chakravarthy
    Music
  • Alex Warner
    Narration
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Genres:
    Wildlife, nature, travel
  • Runtime:
    26 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 30, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    23,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    India
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital 1080p
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Wildlife Conservation Film Festival New York
    New York
    United States
    October 18, 2019
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Sabyasachi Patra

Sabyasachi Patra, an Engineer and MBA by education, worked for 18 years in the corporate world in Tata Motors, CII, Nokia (Head Govt. Relations) and MAIT (Manufacturers Association for Information Technology as Executive Director) at Delhi and served in various committees and panels like member of Jury of Govt. of India EGovernance awards, skills development initiative of Dept. of IT, Chairman of marketing committee of SEZ panel of EPCES etc before deciding to pursue his passion for filmmaking and wildlife conservation and set up his filming company Wild Tiger Productions.

Realizing the power of the films as a medium in spreading conservation awareness, Sabyasachi has
been filming the vanishing wildlife and wilderness areas of India and trying to show the complex ecological linkages between various species. He weaves lessons from his strategic analysis and other management skills to present the wildlife films to a wider range of people. He uses latests cinema and other high end equipment along with perseverance to continue projects for years. He has survived falls from mountain, attacks by tiger and elephants and has been criss-crossing India for his shoots.

To make conservation broad-based and increase the participation of the common man, in 2008 he
launched IndiaWilds® with ( www.indiawilds.com/forums ) an online Conservation and Wildlife
Photography Forum.

He has been writing and publishing IndiaWilds® monthly newsletter (ISSN Number - 2394 – 6946)
( https://www.indiawilds.com/diary/category/newsletter/ ) since 2009, on conservation issues and the
newsletter is circulated to around 10000 people. He encourages the more than 3400 members of
IndiaWilds and the 10000+ readers of his newsletter to voice their protest by writing directly to the
concerned authorities.

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Director Statement

Rann of Kutch is often seen as an vast desert landscape. So people don't realise that the Rann is an ecologically fragile area and contains many different species living in complex ecological relationships. The sudden increase in human population and the effort being made to make it more suitable to human habitations by artificial canals and industries is creating a huge problem for the vast wilderness. My film "Discovering Rann" is an effort to document this vast wilderness and bring small substories with their ecological linkages so that people are able to appreciate and save this fragile landscape.