Festival Season:
October 2026
VANANTARA
Directors:
Writers:
Rajeev A Ganesan
Naveen Kumar M
Producers:
Naveen Kumar M
Run Time:
1:44:21
Awarded for the following Category(s):
Awarded Category(s)
VANANTARA — THE WILDNESS WITHIN
An eco-vlogger ventures into the forests surrounding Bannerghatta, documenting his efforts to clear plastic waste with the help of an automated drone. On his way back, he shares a cab with an unusual stranger — a fellow vlogger who records fragments of his everyday life through a dashboard camera.
An ordinary ride between two strangers takes an unexpected turn when a young boy carrying what appears to be a goat's head enters their journey.
Driven by curiosity and an instinct to help, the two men find themselves drawn into an increasingly unsettling situation. What seems like an insignificant detour soon becomes a journey filled with unanswered questions.
When the boy goes missing, a police officer begins piecing together the events through footage recorded by the drone and the cab's dashcam. Ordinary conversations, fleeting encounters and seemingly insignificant moments gradually take on a different meaning.
Set against the forests of Bannerghatta, on the fringes of Bangalore — one of the world's fastest-growing cities, where expanding urban boundaries increasingly intersect with wildlife habitats and human-animal conflict — VANANTARA unfolds in a landscape where civilisation and wilderness exist in uneasy proximity.
Through an unconventional mystery, the film explores the fragile boundaries between innocence, morality and survival, questioning where civilisation ends and wildness begins.
Perhaps the wild is not as distant from us as we imagine.
VANANTARA — THE WILDNESS WITHIN
Submitter Statement
At the edges of Bangalore, one of the world's fastest-growing cities, the forests of Bannerghatta exist in an uneasy relationship with civilisation. As the city expands, the boundaries between human habitation and wilderness become increasingly fragile. Human-animal conflict is only one manifestation of this intersection. VANANTARA explores this boundary not merely as a geographical divide, but as something deeply human.
The film also emerged from an observation about our relationship with technology. We live in a world where almost everything is recorded. Dashcams, drones, surveillance cameras and personal vlogs constantly capture fragments of everyday life. Yet, recording something does not necessarily mean understanding it.
I wanted the cameras in VANANTARA to behave like real recording devices. They don't anticipate events, seek dramatic moments or understand what they capture. They simply record. The found-footage approach became an integral part of the storytelling, where what remains outside the frame can be as significant as what enters it.
I consciously chose restraint in depicting violence. Rather than showing everything, I relied on sound, fragments and reactions, allowing the audience's imagination to complete what the image withholds.
I often describe my work as "A Rajeev Ganesan Truth." It is not a claim to absolute truth, but an acknowledgement that every film is a subjective interpretation of the world. Mine is simply an honest attempt at one.
VANANTARA is ultimately about witnessing. It is an attempt to make the camera a witness, not a judge.
— Rajeev Ganesan
Director
Rajeev Ganesan is an Indian filmmaker, director, screenwriter and cinematographer with over 16 years of experience across filmmaking, visual storytelling and film education.
He has worked across fiction, documentary and experimental formats, with cinematography credits spanning multiple feature films and projects, and screenwriting credits in feature cinema. His filmmaking practice is rooted in visual storytelling, technology and an interest in exploring how cinematic form can shape the audience's perception of truth.
As a cinematographer, Rajeev is particularly interested in camera language, naturalistic imagery and the relationship between technology and narrative. His work also explores emerging filmmaking tools, including virtual production, motion capture and AI-assisted creative workflows.
Rajeev's directorial work often gravitates towards stories that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction, using unconventional visual formats to place the audience inside the narrative rather than simply observing it.
He is currently based in Bengaluru, India, where he continues to work across independent cinema, cinematography and film education.
Key Cast
Naveen Kumar M, Imran Pasha, Rathsha Ram, Shreyas Gowda
Other Credits