{"id":20264,"date":"2024-03-05T08:50:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T13:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-03-07T09:33:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-07T14:33:57","slug":"poachers-richie-mehta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/","title":{"rendered":"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late 2015, Richie Mehta was working with Ridley Scott and Google on India in a Day<\/em>, a crowdsourced documentary based on the film\u00a0Life in a Day<\/em>\u00a0featuring footage from everyday Indians going about their everyday lives. Of the 16,000 videos shot on October 10, 2015, and submitted for the film, one, in particular, stood out to Mehta. Sent in by the Wildlife Trust of India, it captured a high-stakes ivory raid in Delhi. Mehta didn\u2019t use the footage in\u00a0India in a Day\u00a0<\/em>but knew he wanted to return to the story. After receiving critical acclaim and an International Emmy win for Netflix\u2019s\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>, dramatizing the case of a brutal 2012 gang rape in Delhi, Mehta set out to tell the real-life tale of the forest workers, police and NGO workers who brought down an ivory trafficking ring. Produced by U.S.-based QC Entertainment in association with Suitable Pictures, Poor Man\u2019s Productions and Eternal Sunshine Productions,\u00a0Poacher<\/em>\u00a0is now streaming on Prime Video worldwide.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0What made you want to tell this story, and how did it land at Prime Video?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0I was doing a documentary in 2015 titled\u00a0India in a Day<\/em>. That was a crowdsourced project where people all over India would send me footage of their lives on one day, October 10, 2015. It was mostly people with their families and kids brushing their teeth and fun things people did in a day. One of the pieces of footage was of an ivory raid in Delhi. It was the Kerala Forest Department, Delhi police and NGO workers busting down a door and finding boxes full of ivory. I called Wildlife Trust of India, the NGO that submitted it. I said, What is this footage? And they said it was on the shoot day of my documentary. It happened to be the biggest ivory raid in Indian history. I didn\u2019t think I could use it because I couldn\u2019t give it the context it deserved in the documentary. I said, Give me a few years; I need to finish one other project, and then I\u2019ll come back and learn more about this. I didn\u2019t know wildlife crime was a big problem. I didn\u2019t know there were wildlife crime fighters out there. I didn\u2019t know anything about that world. Toward the end of\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>, I was in postproduction, and I went and met these people and just got hooked.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0Did it take time to get it financed? And why did you feel like Prime Video was the best home?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0It didn\u2019t take me long to get it financed because I had producers who had such faith in the project. I had just released\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>\u00a0and was going to start this research. In Los Angeles, my agents introduced me to [QC Entertainment], who said they loved\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>. They said, What are you doing next? I said, I\u2019m just going to start researching something on wildlife crime fighters. And they said, We\u2019re in! I said, Wait a second, I haven\u2019t pitched you anything. They said, We don\u2019t care. We love the idea. Let us know when you have scripts. We\u2019d like to finance it. And that was it. When they read what I had written, they loved it. They supported my vision. We showed the first three episodes at Sundance last year, and then Amazon was knocking on the door, wanting to see more. We sent them the rest. Other platforms were also interested, but Amazon had an incredible vision for it. Everything that we have done, some people thought of as risks. For example, the multiple languages. Amazon looked at those as attributes and said, We know how to get this into the world. We think it\u2019s a project that should belong to Kerala and belong to India. And then it will go global because it\u2019s authentic.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:\u00a0<\/strong>With\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>, you\u2019ve had experience taking a true story and adapting it for scripted television for a global audience. Did you have to take a different approach to this story?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0It was a bit of the opposite. Of course, there\u2019s a procedural around it and a manhunt and crime fighters. The difference with\u00a0Delhi Crime\u00a0<\/em>is I didn\u2019t need to instill empathy in the audience. You know what the crime is. I don\u2019t need to show it. Here, I felt I had to show you the whole thing. I\u2019m going to show it to you right up front in the very first scene of episode one. Just so you know what we\u2019re talking about. I\u2019m going to utilize every single trick in the movie book, whether it\u2019s technology or thrills, to make you empathize. This is what these wildlife crime fighters are willing to sacrifice their lives for. I need to show you what this is and try to earn your allegiance to stay with us through all eight episodes. Until you reach the end, you won\u2019t fully realize what we\u2019re talking about. The purpose of the project was to instill empathy, whereas, in\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>, the purpose was to get through something you were completely empathetic about.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0I know Prime Video is accompanying the launch with a host of events meant to shine a light on the issue of ivory trafficking. What\u2019s the overall message you want audiences to take from the show?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0There\u2019s an overarching message that is not subtle. We should not be shooting elephants in the head and exploiting them. That\u2019s an easy one. If it were a film, I could ask one question, but with eight episodes\u20146.5 hours of content\u2014I could ask multiple. One of the big questions is, do we really think about what it means to examine our relationship with every living thing around us? What does that actually mean? Where you sit on that spectrum, your opinion will differ from everyone else\u2019s. But I need you to examine it. That\u2019s what this is.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0What were some of the biggest challenges of filming in the Kerala forests?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0After doing\u00a0Delhi Crime<\/em>\u00a0and four other projects in Delhi before that, I\u2019d had enough of that urban environment. I wanted to be in an environment with clean air and clean water. A different side of India. As I researched the project and understood the environment more, I couldn\u2019t believe that this side of India still existed. This side is worth protecting. The biggest challenge was for our generally large film crew to get in and out without disturbing the environment. We\u2019re shooting in actual elephant corridors. We\u2019re shooting in their homes. It was about creating a culture of low footprint, almost zero impact, having a kind of communion with the wildlife around us, saying, We\u2019re here; we\u2019re trying to help you. We know that you don\u2019t see the difference between us and any other human, which is what I\u2019m trying to show in the series. The animal subplot is they don\u2019t know who\u2019s protecting them\u2014they\u2019re just going to run away from all humans. If you come our way, we will back off and let you do what you\u2019re doing. We are not here to harm you, and we\u2019re not here to get in your way. If you give us a little space, we\u2019ll do our thing and be on our way. And you\u2019ll never know we were here. That was the challenge every single day. And I think we pulled it off.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019ve done both documentary and drama. Do you feel more comfortable with one over the other?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0I only did one major documentary. The rest were dramatic projects. I\u2019m most at home in the drama field and love it the most. It\u2019s the game I prefer playing the most. I love working with actors. That\u2019s my zone. Having said that, I\u2019m also trying to blur the lines now. I\u2019m using every cinematic tool available, but at the same time, there\u2019s a realism to what I\u2019m trying to show. Everything represents something in reality. That\u2019s important to me as well. I think the answer lies in between the two mediums.<\/p>\n

TV DRAMA:<\/strong>\u00a0The media business is in a strange period of disruption everywhere. How are you approaching navigating this latest shift? Are you still finding opportunities to tell the stories you want to tell?
\nMEHTA:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve been very lucky that I found financiers who enable me. I tend not to think too much about the state of the industry. That\u2019s something I leave to experts like yourself to examine. I look at where the pieces are after the chips have fallen. It seems that every few months, there\u2019s a flux right now. How do I fit my intent into this new world? I didn\u2019t know ten years ago I would be making long-form content. Ten years from now, for all I know, people will be consuming short-form. Then, I will adjust my messaging or ideas to fit that framework. I\u2019m happy that I\u2019ve gotten a chance to do two long-form projects with no interference in my vision whatsoever, and the industry has supported that. I\u2019m very, very fortunate for that. Going forward, I\u2019ll see where the chips land in the next phase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The creator and director on telling the true story of the take down of an ivory trafficking ring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":20284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,70],"tags":[8649,518,8648],"class_list":["post-20264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-poacher","tag-prime-video","tag-richie-mehta","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nPoacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The creator and director on telling the true story of the take down of an ivory trafficking ring.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVDRAMA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-05T13:50:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-03-07T14:33:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/03\/RICHIE-MEHTA-324.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mansha Daswani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/\",\"name\":\"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-05T13:50:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-03-07T14:33:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/\",\"name\":\"TVDRAMA\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad\",\"name\":\"Mansha Daswani\",\"description\":\"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA","og_description":"The creator and director on telling the true story of the take down of an ivory trafficking ring.","og_url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/","og_site_name":"TVDRAMA","article_published_time":"2024-03-05T13:50:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-03-07T14:33:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":394,"url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/11\/2024\/03\/RICHIE-MEHTA-324.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Mansha Daswani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mansha Daswani","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/","name":"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta - TVDRAMA","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-03-05T13:50:58+00:00","dateModified":"2024-03-07T14:33:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/poachers-richie-mehta\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Poacher\u2019s Richie Mehta"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#website","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/","name":"TVDRAMA","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/#\/schema\/person\/83da304c8bad8bfdb3edd7eb47cfe5ad","name":"Mansha Daswani","description":"Mansha Daswani is the editor-in-chief and associate publisher of World Screen. She can be reached on mdaswani@worldscreen.com.","url":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/author\/mdaswaniworldscreen-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvdrama\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}