Mike Pandey – Using the Power of Motion Picture

Abstract

Mike Pandey is India’s best-known nature documentary filmmaker. After working in Hollywood as an intern, Pandey returned to India, joined the film industry, and founded Riverbank Studios, which started to create nature films. The film ‘Shores of Silence’ brought about legislative changes and was directly responsible for the whale shark being declared a protected species in India. After the film entitled ‘The Vanishing Giants’ showed how inhumanely elephants were captured and treated, a national outrage ensued and the barbaric methods were banned. In ‘The Vanishing Vultures,’ Pandey explored how vulture populations collapsed due to the veterinary drug diclofenac. The film is believed to have played a major role in India’s decision to phase out diclofenac. Pandey has repeatedly shown that films can induce dramatic changes in people’s attitudes towards nature.