A documentary film directed and written by two India-based exile Tibetan filmmakers will be aired soon on Doordarshan, India’s national television channel. Produced by Doordarshan, Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) and the Ford Foundation, the documentary titled Democracy in Exile was the brainchild of the director duo, Tashi Wangchuk and Tsultrim Dorjee, both of whom had studied filmmaking. Tashi did his Master’s in Filmmaking in the US and Tsultrim has a Bachelor’s degree in digital filmmaking from Satvick Infotech & Diploma in FTV in Bangalore.
Doordarshan will telecast the 28.5-minute long film in its Open Frame program where documentaries from all over India are shown every Saturday night at 10.30 on DD-1. The film explores the much debated and discussed topics of Middle Way and Independence as the means to solve the Tibetan issue. It features His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kalon Lobsang Nyandak (minister of exile Tibetan government), Lhasang Tsering, Kalon Tripa (prime minister of exile Tibetan government) Samdong Rinpoche, Kalsang Phuntsok Godrukpa (president of Tibetan Youth Congress), Lobsang Wangyal and some Indians as well. The film has been cleared by PSBT and is currently awaiting clearance from the Film Censor Board of India.
PSBT defined itself as a not for profit trust that represents the confluence of energies to foster a shared public culture of broadcasting that is as exciting and cutting edge, as it is socially responsive and representative of democratic values.
Tashi and Tsultrim bagged the Doordarshan project in the most unexpected way. Tashi says, “Actually we approached PSBT office (chaired by Rajiv Mehrotra) for a partial film grant for our last film, Phun Anu Thanu. But that was not possible since they fund only those programs which are non fiction in nature that can be aired on DD-1. So, we got the fund for the current documentary.”
The duo is currently preparing to shoot their latest project, a comedy show called The Great Tibetan Laughter Show. It is most probably conceived on the lines of the immensely popular Indian TV show, The Great Indian Comedy show, judging from the similar sounding titles but they are not saying anything on the content.
The filmmakers also have another project called Richard Gere is My Hero in the pipeline. It will be their second feature film after Phun Anu Thanu screenings of which were held in many countries including India and North America.
