Flames OF Paradise - Season 1 - Episode 5

7 years ago

Flames OF Paradise - Season 1 - Episode 5

They decided to take local theatre artists for some re-construction that needed to be done of a couple of case studies.

In her script, Snigdha was being very careful not to portray the militants in poor light, rather they were shown on neutral grounds, and truth about what they have been doing, why they are fighting for the freedom of Kashmir, why they have been resorting to violence and what is theirmodus operandi coming out through their interviews. Snigdha was fully aware that these facts coming out of the mouths of the ‘militants’ or ‘terrorists’ as they were called by world at large and ‘Jihadis’ or ‘freedom fighters’ as they were called by themselves would add weight and umbrage to her film. It was this strategy that prompted Snigdha to add loads of live and spot interviews of surrendered militants, candid shots of their camps and visuals of the villages where some of the victims lived and agreed to appear before camera. This aspect of her script had attracted Triple Eye as they wanted to be the first to have a realistic story on such a boiling subject. The fact that it was going to be a dangerous venture had prompted them to seek security from the police and army and cover from the local social activists.
The team had discussed the danger of shooting in certain militant areas which they were supposed to avoid and had finally decided to first finish the interviews and other establishing scenes of Srinagar and then move on to highly disturbed places like Uri in Baramulla, Bandipura, Pulwama and Khilanmarg. Shuttling constantly between Triple Eye Office and her place of work, Snigdha had to deal with different types of people during her preparation. Some were not convinced of a scene here and there and needed a lot of explanation on her part to convince them of the relevance of it as per the story. Few locations had to be scrapped due to safety reasons. And team had to be made as compact as possible so that a big crowd would not go for the shoot lest it attracted too much attention and posed a danger for them.

It was decided that the team of eight comprising Nitin, Tripti, Dimple, Ruby, Srinivasan, the cinematographer and his attendant who would be handling both light and sound and finally Snigdha would go to Jammu by the Rajdhani Express appearing like regular tourists where they will be received by a well-equipped van that would take them to their destination in Srinagar.

The high-end digital cameras, the expensive lenses, lights and other accessories were all packed in specially designed fibre boxes for safety. Snigdha had not compromised in the selection of the equipment as she knew that her film might get a bigger and wider audience if it is nominated for the famous film festivals in Cannes, Toronto or LA. She wanted her film’s cinematography to be of top class and hired one of the best Directors of Photography of New Delhi who excelled in documentary shoot.