New Delhi: National Award winning filmmaker Nila Madhab Panda on Thursday said that his new film "Kadvi Hawa" is not aimed at scaring people or educating them with facts regarding various environmental issues. He wants to make the audience "conscious" about the remaining natural resources that humans are left with.
"Kadvi Hawa", touted to be the first Bollywood film talking about environmental issues as a whole, received a Special Mention at the 64th National Film Awards earlier this year. It features Sanjay Mishra, Ranvir Shorey and Tillotama Shome in the lead.
The first look of the film was unveiled by UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Erik Solheim here at the Foreign Correspondents Club of South Asia.
"I wanted to make a film that would have stayed in people's mind for a long time because our fight with environment has no end. The natural resources that we have consumed cannot come back to us," Panda said.
"So, now we have limited things left like water, air, land... We have to use it with conscious mind. Right now we are sitting in the most polluted city (Delhi).
"Through cinema, we want to educate people about environment. I am not giving the people any solution with this film. All I want to tell is that let's just be conscious about what we have, save it and do not damage it further," he added.
Solheim said: "People feel the way we talk about the environment is too boring. An entertaining film like ‘Kadvi Hawa' is a great medium to spread the message about climate change."
The film stars Ranvir as a young bank loan recovery agent and Sanjay as a blind old farmer. The story revolves around these two ordinary people fighting for survival in two extreme weather conditions.
Sanjay said he feels blessed to have been chosen for this film.
"Losing things in life is bad, but losing environment is disastrous. There was a time when we used to wear sweater in October. Now we use air conditioners even in November and December. This is dangerous. What we will show to the upcoming generation? We need to think about this," he added.
Panda said that the idea of making this film first came to his mind in 2005 when he shot his first documentary on climate change.
"In Odisha, there were seven villages on a coastal line. They were called ‘seven brothers'. But when I reached there, I only saw two of them. I got a shock when I saw two hand-pumps inside water. I heard from people between 60-70 age group that those hand-pumps were earlier located in the middle of the village," he said.