CHENNAI: Long before Sugandhi Gadadhar picked up a camera to film otters along the Cauvery, she was a six-year-old watching wildlife programmes on television. Discovery Channel, National Geographic and Animal Planet introduced her to the natural world. She did not always understand the language, as only some programmes were dubbed, but the images stayed with her. Back home, she watched in fascination as squirrels ran around the coconut tree in her backyard. All of this prompted a question that would eventually shape her career: why weren’t stories about India’s own wildlife being told with the same sense of wonder?
Today, Sugandhi is a Bengaluru-based wildlife filmmaker-cinematographer and National Geographic Explorer, and has made My Otter Diary, a documentary she directed, filmed and narrated. Centred on Maya, a smooth-coated otter, the film follows her family while also looking beyond the animals to explore the river, its ecosystem and the fishing communities that depend on it. Sugandhi’s connection to the Cauvery, too, began in childhood. While visiting the river during her school holidays, she noticed something briefly surfacing in the water before disappearing. “I was like, what was that thing that I saw? Someone later told me it was an otter and I never saw it again, but the fleeting encounter lingered,” she recalls.
Years later, Sugandhi and her husband and filmmaking partner Raghunath ‘Rana’ Belur, both members of the IUCN Otter Specialist Group, went to the Cauvery to make My Otter Diary. “There we found a family of otters and started observing them. Otters are so elusive, like an illusion. That’s how she got her name Maya,” she explains. Sugandhi, Rana and Shivanna 'Shivu', a local fisherman who features in the film, spent weeks watching them, using long telephoto lenses from the opposite bank, camera traps and underwater GoPros. Gradually, the family revealed distinct personalities: Maya was graceful and poised, while the youngsters were playful. One sub-adult even used to chew anything made of rubber. “We never ever went close to them because that’s when we get to see them as they are,” Sugandhi says.
Soon, the waiting became a way of life for them. After the COVID-19 lockdown, Sugandhi and Rana moved to a village near the Cauvery and rented a small house. Their days began around 5 am, with the two taking positions along the river based on previous sightings and camera-trap footage. There was no guarantee the otters would appear. “Some days we would just watch the river, enjoy the bird calls and get bitten by a thousand mosquitoes,” she chuckles.
One of the documentary’s most demanding sequences involved otters stealing fish from fishermen’s nets, something Shivu had observed. The filmmakers used underwater GoPros and developed a system using a special cable to remotely trigger the camera when an otter approached. After repeated attempts, they finally recorded the otters raiding fishing nets underwater. “For us, it was very special to actually have recorded that moment,” Sugandhi says. “There is this dedicated relationship between the fishing communities and the otters, but it’s also a complex one because otters have adapted to stealing from fishermen,” Sugandhi says. Pollution, changing landscapes and possible declines in fish numbers add further pressure to a river both depend on.
The river also constantly complicated the shoot. Rising water submerged camera traps and destroyed footage, while filming from a coracle made it difficult to maintain a steady frame. Disturbances along the riverbank also caused otters to shift dens, forcing the filmmakers to search for them again.
A still from My Otter DiaryAfter years of filming, Sugandhi, Rana and Chennai-based editor Joseph Raja spent around nine months sifting through the footage to shape the final film. For Sugandhi, narrating the documentary brought the journey full circle. “I wanted my story, my journey to be in my voice,” she says.
My Otter Diary has received international recognition, including at the Jackson Wild Media Awards, Accolade Global Film Competition and Best Shorts Competition. “I want to talk more about lesser-known species, about the beautiful natural heritage that India has,” she concludes.