The Secrets of Wild India
Leading wildlife filmmaker Harry Marshall talks about his new series that reveals India’s little known wildlife treasures
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, The Secrets of Wild India, airs Mondays at 8pm on Nat Geo Wild UK. It takes viewers from the jungles of Assam to the deserts of Gujarat, charting the plight of India’s surprisingly diverse wildlife.
Peter Moore talked to the founder and creative director of Icon Films (the production company behind the new programme), Harry Marshall, about the challenges facing India and its wildlife. And the challenges he faced filming them.
What was your involvement with Secrets of Wild India
I had the fun job – coming up with and selling the broad idea of the structure of the series. Three films on three iconic Indian locations. One on jungles, one on deserts and one on the rivers and plains. I went out on various recce trips with the series director Duncan Chard and introduced him to the wonderful Indian camera and field team.
You have a personal connection with India. Is India still a special place for you?
I was born in India and have a long family connection with the country. I grew up in the south and went to school there until I was 12, when I came to England. So India really is home in so many ways and where I have many dear friends. It’s also where I have had most of my most memorable and most alarming adventures. It can be the best and the worst of places but it is never boring. It will always surprise you with another way of solving a problem, another level of generosity or stoicism or just another way of seeing the world.
How often do you get back to India and the Himalayas?
I go to India several times a year. I need very little excuse to go back I haven’t been to the Himalayas for some time and am suffering withdrawal symptoms. The last time I spent a long period there was to film snow leopards in Ladakh. It was minus 40 and my Indian cameraman Alphonse – who is from Chennai – told me that God would punish me for bringing a Dravidian to such a place. Chennai has three seasons. Hot. Hotter. Hottest. He had icicles on his moustache and stole my ugg boots.
