Taira Malaney On Her Long Journey To Make ‘Turtle Walker’: ‘As An Independent Documentary Filmmaker, It Takes Time To Fundraise’

Filmmaker Taira Malaney’s documentary film “Turtle Walker”, which is centered on the life of an Indian herpetologist, Satish Bhaskar, has traveled across the globe since its world premiere at DOC NYC, followed by screenings at the Raindance Film Festival, the Hamptons International Film Festival and a special showcase at the United Nations Ocean Conference. The documentary also won awards and accolades on international circuits, including Best Film at AFO, the Conservation Award at the International Ocean Film Festival, and two of the highest honours at the Jackson Wild Media Awards—the Conservation Award and the prestigious Grand Teton Award.

However, the journey has not been easy for Taira as the documentary took seven long years for its completion.

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Talking to Variety India, the young filmmaker shares how the little things helped her to stay motivated in this tough journey. “When we first started, I was not anticipating a seven-year journey. I think it's something that grows and evolves. A lot of documentaries do take this long because you really have to sort of build that trust, and that takes time, and then you have to immerse yourself in that person's world to actually really capture a change across time. So, that's kind of the main reason why it ended up being such a long period,” shares Taira.

Sharing how raising funds took time and Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti coming at a critical point as producers, Taira adds, “As an independent documentary filmmaker, doing it for the first time, it does take time to fundraise for it and to bring important key partners onto the film that help to sort of build visibility and support the film financially, etc. I think what encouraged me were the little things along the way, having people come and support me and become a part of it, for instance, Tiger Baby (Zoya Akhtar and Reema Kagti’s production house) coming on board at a time when we really had completely exhausted the funds that we had to put into the project. We've been independently producing it for about three and a half to four years. At that point, we really needed that support to get it to the next level."