By Annie Banerji
BHUBANESWAR, India Sept 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Eschewing the typical Bollywood storyline of young lovers facing family opposition, an upcoming Indian film instead features a couple battling climate change in order to be together.
“Kokoli”, which is the name of the female protagonist and also a type of fish, tells a story of a fishing community facing the loss of livelihoods and land as sea levels rise in the eastern state of Odisha. It will be released in November.
The Oriya-language film centres on Kokoli and her boyfriend, who sets out to build a wall to keep towering waves from destroying and uprooting his village – a task he must succeed at in order to win her mother’s approval.
“Fishing is the only livelihood for them and the only skill they know. They are victims of climate change,” filmmaker Snehasis Das told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Simultaneously, I focus on how love – a relationship – can be disturbed due to calamities,” said the 43-year-old. “It is a lot about how they adapt to love and climate change. Their future hinges on adaptation.”
