WHEN A BIRD SINGS, DO YOU ANALYZE IT?

SIDDHARTH KAK is an Indian documentary maker, television producer, and presenter, best known as the producer and presenter of Surabhi. Here, he is interviewed by PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN at the Global Spirituality Mahotsav about being stoic, and he shares two unique stories on how culture and language can transcend borders, time, and unexpected circumstances.

- PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN

Q: Thank you so much for joining us. My first question to you is what distinguishes documentary filmmaking from regular filmmaking in capturing the essence of a story?

The idea of a documentary is to communicate. Depending on whom you communicate with, your documentary changes. A documentary is a teaching medium. When you make any film for the masses, you have to make sure you retain their interest. What is in it for them? Why are they watching it? They're not there to learn; they're there to enjoy, to be entertained.

Really speaking, the principle of documentary filmmaking is to capture the audience's attention, and one of the simplest ways is to make sure it is understood. Can an eight-year-old child understand what you're saying? If she can, then your documentary is good; it will communicate to a large number of people. This is true even for specialized documentaries, which only committed people will listen to. You may not feel it's important to reach others, but your documentary can bring them into the fold. Even if you're dealing with very complicated subjects, you're not talking to scientists, you're talking to the general public. If you don't capture their attention in the first minute they're gone.

Q: How do you approach the research of storytelling?

The best research is through talking to people. But it is messy because you collect large amounts of information. Finally, it is your ability to put it together. If there isn't something new, it won't interest others, so it has to have a common denomination.

Are you aware of the great mathematician Baskaracharya? He wrote the book Lilavati. Lilavati was his eight-year-old daughter, so he wrote the book to explain mathematics to his daughter, an eight-year-old child. And Lilavati grew to be a great mathematician in her own right.