How Green Is Your Movie?

“Iska kya zaroorat hai (what is the need for all this)?”, is what producers kept asking director Biswajeet Bora during the shooting of his 2015 drama Aisa Yeh Jahaan. On realising how difficult it was to control the amount of waste a film set produces, the Assamese director wanted to offset the damage by planting trees. His idea was met with a cold response. “I was making movies about the environment and I myself was responsible for so much waste. It made me feel guilty.”

Biswajeet began thinking of methods to reduce his film’s carbon footprint. Could the logistics be planned better? Could he reduce food and plastic waste? Was there a way to shoot with natural light so as to reduce reliance on generators? “We thought of everything, but realised it was almost impossible to implement these ideas on a small film. We gave up. The only solution was to think of doing something in post.”

That’s when he heard of an organisation called CERE India, an NGO that specialises in tree plantation drives and solar panel installations. Its members looked at the shoot’s daily schedules, the number of people on set and how many generators were running. CERE’s assessment led them to plant 600 trees which could, with time, offset some of the damage. Media outlets around the country covered this initiative.

Yet a decade later, only a handful of other films have adopted this seemingly simple step. Why hasn’t it caught on? “I don’t know if anything has changed since then,” says Janjri Jasani, deputy director of CERE India. “There’s been a lot of ‘window dressing’ in the industry after that. You’ll see films talking about reducing waste. You’ll see Bollywood actors becoming spokespersons for environmental issues. But the assessment, the impact, the reduction, the reporting…there is none of that in this industry.”

Aisa Yeh Jahaan (2015)

Buoyed by the media attention Aisa Yeh Jahaan got, Jasani reached out to other production houses that could just as easily have emulated the same steps. But they did not show any interest. “Perhaps there is a better opportunity today since there is awareness about climate change as a pressing issue. Productions today are also more in the public eye.” 

Not a lot can be said about the four South Indian industries either. Tamil film Vanakkam Chennai (2013), directed by Kiruthiga Udhayandhi, was the first to include an environmentalist during early stages of production. Just like Aisa Yeh Jahaan, the production planted trees to offset their damage. This too received a lot of press, but sadly did not set a precedent.

Ann Anra runs India Wasted, a company that has worked with a handful of Tamil films to recycle and reduce waste from sets. She recently worked with Madras Talkies, cleaning up a massive warehouse housing props and costumes from the two Ponniyin Selvan films. “I got involved months after production but even so, we managed to salvage hundreds of kilos of props that could be reused or repurposed. A lot had already been damaged. If I could just have been involved earlier, we could have done even more,” she said.

Despite their low consultation fees, Anra did not get follow-up calls from other production houses that were mounting similar projects. “I have almost entirely moved away from working with films today. Compared to film productions, our budgets are miniscule. Yet there’s a resistance when we try to pitch what we can offer as a service.”

According to Bora, film productions are more than happy to spend money as long as it is “seen on screen”. As the benefits of carbon neutrality or waste reduction are invisible, resistance is to be expected.

“One of the misconceptions about the waste generated on sets is that it’s all plastic,” adds Jasani. “But plastic, either from the food or drinks served, is just part of it. There is just as much generated from materials used to construct the set. For these, one can impose zero-disposable policies on sets (what does this mean?). There are several organisations that help to put in a segregation system with the aim of recycling.”

Aisa Yeh Jahaan (2015)

But the biggest challenge is the amount of fuel used during shoots, either in diesel generators or to transport personnel and equipment. “That’s the bigger area that needs to be targeted. If a consultant comes onboard right from the writing stage, even this can be controlled. For example, if a scene needs to be shot in an exotic location, a consultant can suggest alternatives that will reduce the carbon footprint by controlling the amount of travel. The idea is to not create the mess in the first place. Offsetting it can be looked at as the last option.”

Several similar policies have caught on in other movie industries in the US, Europe and China. In the US, sustainability consultants are brought in at earlier stages of production, especially for big budget productions such as Jurassic Park: Dominion. A switch to renewable diesels (hydrotreated vegetable oil) instead of conventional diesel is also being tested. Production on the 2013 film Bad Words was entirely solar power-based. Organisations such as the Vectar Project build recyclable sets by replacing plastics and fibres with cardboard and paper.

“For the film I’m shooting now, I have signed an MOU with a village in Assam which ensures that the trees we plant will not be cut for the next 15 years,” says Biswajeet. “This provides some respite, but is not leading to any industry-wide changes. For that, people like Salman Khan will have to start talking about the environment. Everyone will follow then.”