Living on the edge is like continuously living like it is your last day on earth. I have always found something very fascinating about the lives of people who live on the fringes of the so called society. We pass them every day, on our way to work and schools and entertainment, and yet we look through them. Their very existence. If you look closely, it is a miracle they even survive the dangers everyday life throws at them. These people live in slums, next to railway tracks, under flyovers – almost hidden from our point of view. Their lives are not very different from the tribes that inhabit the remotest parts of the world. Observing their lives closely whenever I could, once I got past my feelings of sympathy, I could not help but admire the way they lead their lives. Taking risks at every stage, never complaining about constraints – just focusing on survival – even managing to smile and be happy at times. I realized that in every slum and every primitive and deprived tribal dwelling there are heroes. Heroes made of sprit and steel that was / is the reason why the human race has survived the evolutionary process.
I asked myself time and again, do we, the educated urban people, know any better about life and survival and nature than those really living on the edge? There are several NGOs that dedicate themselves to bring those at the edge to the center. Do those at the edge want to come to the center? It is one thing to take the progress of science and technology to make living on the edge safer. It is quite another to sit on a higher ground and judge their lifestyle as regressive or even primitive. Over time, another question emerged: What if they had to reach out to progress? What if their lives depended on it? What would they do? A bit of research and a few visits to some tribal settlements later, 'Sikharam (The Peak)' was born.
In making this film, we were particular about not casting any known faces or use any sets. Our aim was to keep it as real as possible. Most of the cast is handpicked from in and around the village of Paderu. None of them are professional actors, and engage in simple livelihood. Except the children, who belong to state-run juvenile homes in Andhra Pradesh, living on the edge in a different and yet relevant sense. Getting the act together with this cast was perhaps the biggest challenge and an adventure in itself. But the overall experience has been very rewarding to me and my crew. I must say 'Sikharam' has brought us closer to our own nature in a lot of ways.
This film is dedicated to 150 million tribal people from more than 60 countries across the world. |
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