Private Project

A Serious Wedding

Bhojpuri ethnofiction film about a radical love story between a young man and a tree. Can the community’s songs help him save his love from being cut down?

  • Rajat Nayyar
    Director
  • Rajat Nayyar
    Writer
  • Maharajya Kunwar
    Writer
  • Rana El Kadi
    Writer
  • Espírito Kashi
    Producer
  • Vibhash Yadav
    Key Cast
    "Vibhash"
  • Sunil Sharma
    Key Cast
    "Vakeel Sahab"
  • Vidya Sagar
    Key Cast
    "DM Sahab"
  • Sarfu Ansari
    Key Cast
    "Guru"
  • Tony Lal Alkar
    Key Cast
    "YouTuber"
  • Tapasya Baba
    Key Cast
    "Pandit ji"
  • Krishna Mahato
    Key Cast
  • Nithin Shams
    Sound Design
  • Chitraang Nayyar
    Production
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    जे सी बी रवनवा
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Other
  • Genres:
    Ethnofiction, Rural Sci-Fi, Ethno-Science-Fiction, Anthropological Film
  • Runtime:
    19 minutes 30 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 26, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Canada
  • Country of Filming:
    India
  • Language:
    English, Hindi
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes - York University
Director Biography - Rajat Nayyar

Rajat Nayyar is an anthropologist and filmmaker who is currently a SSHRC Vanier Scholar and a PhD Candidate in Theatre at York University. He works at the intersection of film and future-making with rural communities in Bihar, drawing heavily on his training in audiovisual ethnography, theatre and performance studies.

He is the co-founder of Emergent Futures CoLab through which he curates Talking Uncertainty, an online talk series that features future-focussed scholars and artists from around the world. Rajat recently curated the 'Filming Futures' program at Freiburger Filmforum in Germany, where he showcased films that center radical hope and build upon the playfulness of ‘ciné-provocation’.

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Director Statement

For over a decade, I have been researching the role of songs and other vocal traditions in navigating relationships between humans and other/more than humans in the villages of Bihar. The ethno-fiction film 'A Serious Wedding' (JCB Ravanva) is the result of my long-term collaboration with Bihar-based traditional singer Aaji and members of her village community.

After I completed my PhD fieldwork in December 2021, community members expressed interest in creating a film about deforestation in their village. Meanwhile, Aaji told me about a local tradition in which community members marry young men and women to non-humans (such as trees, ponds, wells, etc.) so they become fully responsible for their care. She shared with me many songs and stories that highlight these traditions, and together, we collaboratively developed the film concept through ethnographic research.

After that, our team worked on this community-based experiment using the ethno-fiction filmmaking approach. This involved working on the script, songs and dialogues with many community members, collaborating with amazing sound artist Nithin Shams on recording, mixing and mastering the film sounds, and creating with the super talented Shreya Bhatia posters inspired by old Hindi and Bhojpuri popular films.

Some community members played themselves, while others who worked in factories, construction and carpentry took a short leave from work to play their role of a romantic activist, a lawyer and a District Magistrate. The resultant film is an unconventional eco-activist ethno-fiction that highlights the Bhojpuri vocal traditions performed during weddings between humans and trees. It features the marriage of a young man and a tree, a union that successfully thwarts the state government’s plans to construct a highway which would otherwise destroy numerous trees in the area. Through songs, rituals and fiction filmmaking, the participants are able to reimagine future scenarios and stage their everyday environmental activism.