Director Alex Gale says his attempt with the latest sports documentary “Sons of the Soil: Jaipur Pink Panthers” was to present the evolution of kabaddi from a native Indian sport to now having a dedicated league.
Produced by BBC Studios India and directed by the two-time BAFTA Scotland winner Gale, the series follows the journey of Jaipur Pink Panthers in the seventh season of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL).
In an e-mail interview with PTI, Gale said he was he was driven to direct the show primarily because of the larger theme he saw- the rise of kabaddi.
“I love that the sport is native to India and has evolved over centuries, I wanted to explore the grass roots culture that has driven the success of the sport and see how that has manifested itself in the PKL,” Gale said.
The series aims to provide a locker-room view of the team, including interactions with Panthers’ owner, actor Abhishek Bachchan.
For Gale, the challenge was to ensure that he doesn’t miss any drama.
From tiff between teammates to the celebrations of fans, the director said he had to be alert to film it all.
“The biggest challenge was to make sure we don’t miss key moments such as team arguments or even fan fervour in the build up to games. We often have to hedge our bets as to where we place cameras as we can’t be everywhere all the time,” he added.
The director said the film team spent “several months” in post production, discussing every character arc, its relevance and even made the difficult choice of dropping certain tracks as they weren’t going with the overall story.
“There are so many options when it comes to series structure so it’s challenging to navigate the best path. We often had to drop great stories, scenes or characters because whilst good, they would confuse or distract attention from our key narrative,” he added.
“Sons of the Soil: Jaipur Pink Panthers” continues Gale’s fascination for chronicling sports stories on screen.
The director had previously backed sports documentaries “Glasgow 1967: The Lisbon Lions” and “Scotland 78: A Love Story”, both of which bagged the Best Documentary award from BAFTA Scotland in 2017 and 2018.
While chronicling someone’s life, or the journey of a group, Gale said it’s hard to be “completely objective.”
The filmmaker said his attempt was to present a “balanced”, well rounded picture of each character from all angles, including from the points of view of those around them.
“I personally think the best documentaries present their subjects in these contrasting lights and allow the viewer to decide for themselves about how to interpret them,” he added.
“Sons of the Soil: Jaipur Pink Panthers” started streaming on Amazon Prime Video last week.
