Aditya Seth is a recognized name in Indian television, corpo­rate movie and documentary domains. Based in Mumbai, India, Seth got the Best Documentary award at the prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Film Fes­tival for his documentary ‘Bahadur-The Accidental Brave (2011)’ based on the link between HIV and Nepali labor migration to India. He is also an academic and teaches filmmaking and related media. Seth was recently in Kathmandu to conduct a week-long filmmaking work­shop for aspiring Nepali filmmakers at the Sarwanam Theatre, Kalikasthan. Sunny Mahat of APEX caught up with him to talk about ‘Bahadur’ as well as his larger film-making career.

 

 

How did ‘Bahadur’ happen?

I got hired to work for a radio pro­gram that was being made by an international development agency. The program, being produced from Kanchanpur, Kathmandu and Mum­bai, was geared at Nepali migrants to India and safe sex practices. At that time, incidents of HIV among Nepali migrants was very high. Since it was a floating population, there was no way to focus on them and teach them safe sex practices.

The far-western region of Nepal was sitting on an HIV epidemic. So when I started interacting with the community in Mumbai, I felt this is something the world doesn’t know about and it is a story that needs to be told. I came to Achham in 2009 and started shooting.

 

 

How difficult was it working in remote Nepal?

Security-wise, it was not difficult because the insurgency was just about over. But we did face problems. Access to the place was limited. There were no proper roads to the villages we travelled to. Electricity was scarce too.

As far as the people are concerned, it was quite easy to work with the locals. There was a tacit acceptance of death as an inevitability. As men will go for work, they will stay away from their wives for long, they will go to the brothels, they will practice unsafe sex, they will con­tract HIV and they will die eventually. That was something they had accepted. Women had been affected too and at the time we were shooting, around 2,000 people had already died of HIV in far-western Nepal. It was strange that there was easy acceptance but again, there was lot of apprehension of people who go to India to work. At the same time, the Nepali ministers and govern­ment officials were not ready to talk about the issue.

 

 

After all those years in main­stream television, advertis­ing, and corporate film making, have you quit all of them to focus solely on documentaries?

If I get an opportunity, I’ll still work on these industries because I have to make a living. But my interest ever since I became a filmmaker was non-fic­tion and documentaries.

It’s just that initially I wanted to explore different types of filmmaking so I went to Mumbai and started doing television. I did all kinds of shows from soap operas to dramas to comedies and thrillers. Eventually, I stopped enjoying television.

Then I took a departure from TV and took up other work. I went on to do corporate movies and advertising and whatever I earned, I put into documen­taries. For the past 15 years I’ve been doing only non-fiction.

 

 

What is your analysis of the Nepali film industry?

Let me talk about lack of understand­ing or the lack of professionalism in Nepal. Although a few film schools exist here, from what I’ve seen, they’re not very professional and proficient.

 

 

Why do you think that is the case?

There are two things as far as Nepal is concerned. One is that the industry is still very small because the investments are not very high. Also, it doesn’t seem to be a very robust or commercially ori­ented industry. Although I’ve heard of a few successful films, how many films reach that level?

India has been successful because it has been able to constantly grow and improve its market. They also spend as much if not more in marketing and distribution in comparison to production. I think that part is lack­ing in Nepal. I think the emphasis is more on production rather than on how to reach new audiences as well as the diaspora. Focusing on dias­pora is important because Nepal is a remittance-based economy and many Nepalis are settled abroad.

To add to the part about profession­alism, one reason I came to Nepal is also to promote my upcoming film academy in Delhi which is start­ing in a month. The academy will conduct trainings on film­making and media disciplines in an extended workshop model. I want students from Nepal to come there and gain from what­ever experiences I’ve had. They can bring back those experiences and develop their film industry in Nepal. It’s called the Indian Academy of Shots and it will be affordable to Nepali students.