To Kill a Tiger is one of the most harrowing and impactful documentaries that I have ever seen.  This has earned it the chance to win an Oscar at the ceremony in a few weeks in the Best Documentary Feature Film category.  Offscreen Central had the opportunity to speak with the film’s director, Nisha Pahuja, and learn about what inspired her to make this film.

Jessa Hay: Thank you so much for meeting with me!  I was able to watch the film last night and I was blown away. I was captivated but it was also so harrowing and everything about it was beautiful and sad and amazing.  I’m so glad I had the opportunity to view it.  To start off my first question would be what initially drew you to this story and this family?
Nisha Pahuja: Initially I was making a very different film. I was actually making a film that was looking at masculinity in India and I was following the work of the NGOs that are featured in the film and they were running a gender sensitization program working with men and boys across the state of Jharkand and 30 villages.  I was filming with a few of the people that were participating in that program to sort of document their transformation over time. That was the initial idea. Ranjit, who’s the father in the film, was one of the people enrolled in that gender sensitization program and so organically I met him because I was following also the NGO and the NGO had decided that they were going to support him so that’s how I came across him and his story.

Jessa Hay: That’s so fascinating! It’s so interesting with documentary filmmaking how you think you go in with one idea and then you come out with something completely different. Due to the subject matter of what the film became, it could be very hard for some people to watch this film but I still think it’s very important to talk all about what goes on during this, but due to that subject matter was there anything that you were tempted to cut out or take away from the film or the final project that you eventually kept in because you knew that it was important for the story?
Nisha Pahuja:  There were discussions that we had about the potential of removing some of the scenes where the crew is implicated and is part of the story. You know the scene where the community comes into the house and threatens us and the following scene which is me speaking to the NGO and telling them what happened and telling them that their work could be affected as a result?  There was talk for a little while of what it would be like if we didn’t have those two scenes. It would take away about 10 minutes of time which might have made the film kind of flow better because it’s a long film.  There was talk of “Do we lose it? Does it detract?”  We were sort of divided – well actually I always felt it was really important – but I think there were a few people who were wondering if we should remove them because maybe they sort of interrupted a narrative flow, which I can understand, but I felt really strongly about those two scenes. The reason is because, for me, they showed an audience what it means to make a film and the fact that there is always a crew filming whatever is going on. This sense that we create is almost like this sort of fictional sense.  If there’s this invisible camera documenting these stories and creating these stories with so completely untrue. As soon as you have a camera you’re affecting reality. We could not deny the impact that we were having; it was so clear that we were having an effect on the story and so for us to not implicate ourselves for us to pretend that wasn’t happening just felt like we were undermining not just the truth but also the complexity of making a film.  So I’m really glad we kept those scenes in.

Jessa Hay: Sometimes you forget how scary it can get when you go into deeper topics compared to a general film when you have permission to go and film in certain locations and do certain things. How would you say your approach to making this film, To Kill a Tiger differs from one of your other recent documentaries The World Before Her?  Was there a major change in how you wanted to approach this story compared to the other two girls’ stories? Or was it mostly a very similar style and idea?
Nisha Pahuja: I would say that it’s very different actually. I’m not sure if you’ve seen The World Before Her but I would say with this film it’s much more lyrical, it’s much more feminine and that was a very deliberate decision both in terms of the filming and in the edit.  I feel that one of the sort of key differences is that with this film I followed a narrative over a very long period of time and I think when that happens it’s really miraculous because it’s really hard to find a very compelling narrative that you can track over time and with this you just never knew where it was going to go. I didn’t know how far the family would take their fight but it was very very interesting to just track something and to be with it and to sort of film something purely that was verity and unfolding in front of your eyes. I think it just gives the film a certain kind of energy and a certain kind of momentum and immediacy that maybe didn’t exist in The World Before Her. Although I think with that film that people did find it very compelling as well and the people who participated in the film were also very very interesting and I would say maybe that’s kind of one of those things that maybe that is common in terms of the films that I make. There is a certain kind of intimacy that I’m able to create with the participants that I think defines the way I approach a documentary.

Jessa Hay: What got you into the art of documentary filmmaking?
Nisha Pahuja:  It was a complete accident because I didn’t study film. I have no film background. I studied literature and initially my thought was to become a writer. That was actually what I wanted to do and at some point a friend of mine introduced me to a producer in Toronto who was looking for a researcher to work on a documentary and she hired me and I just fell in love with the art form.  I feel like it’s sort of combined sort of a real kind of abiding commitment that I have to social justice issues along with a desire to tell stories and you know something the sort of creative pulse in me since I was a child. It was like a perfect fusing of these two impulses. It was such a perfect fit. I can’t imagine doing anything but. 

Jessa Hay: Do you think that background of you being a writer helped you learn how to research better and research properly, especially for a topic like this?
Nisha Pahuja:  I think what it did is it helped me because any kind of creative art form is about storytelling. It’s communicating, so for me I feel like that’s what it gave me; the literature background just gave me a sense of story, gave me a sense of people, what one needs in order to create something that’s compelling, what to look for, what are the elements that make for a good story.  I think you just sort of carry that with you in a subconscious way when you’re in the field and with this particularly because it was verity, because it was happening in real time, I could really sort of react to it as a narrative, as a story, as opposed to an abstract idea like when you’re making an essay film.  So it was a different process.

Jessa Hay: I think what interested me was, growing up in the United States and we hear about cases like this all the time and we think “Oh it can’t happen anywhere else,” but it does happen everywhere else. Was there anything interesting to you about knowing, because you’re from Canada,  knowing how our judicial systems work compared to the judicial system in To Kill a Tiger ?  Was there anything that was similar that was really interesting or do you think it was completely different?
Nisha Pahuja:  No, I think that the similarities are so striking and that’s what is terrifying.  To me, it makes me very aware of the work that needs to be done and how critical it is. And I really started to understand it more and more as I was making film and then as I started to have conversations around impact and the work that we want to do with the film but the barriers to justice that Kiran and her family were put through was sort of an insensitive system and overburdened feelings of shame, the stigma, that she and her family were carrying is common to survivors around the world.  Every single survivor thinks it’s their fault.  Every single survivor looks inside and questions whether they had anything to do with it. It’s so tragically common and so I think this social stigma around sexual violence is something that we really have to address. It’s universal and the barriers to justice that survivors have is based around the world and I started to think that I don’t know how much time it needs. You have to really kind of understand your sources. What I have been finding in terms of the research that I’ve done is the rates of conviction in the United States and the UK, for example, and the number of cases that actually go to trial and the number of people who come forward are so low. What’s that expression?  “You’re just scratching at the surface of the issue,” which was a real surprise to me.

Jessa Hay: So that leads into my final question for you which is if there is one thing you want the audience to take away from your film, what would that be?
Nisha Pahuja: Well it’s two things. One is what I’m really hoping will happen with this film, and it’s starting to because we get messages from survivors, but that survivors seek justice. The importance of survivors coming forward and seeking justice, the importance of sensitizing the ecosystem that survivors have to navigate to seek justice, like the police, first responders, lawyers, all of that work has to be done. Then I think for me the importance of men joining the folds and joining the fight. I think, for me, that’s sort of like a critical next step.

Jessa Hay: It was such an honor and a privilege speaking with you. I wish you the best of luck with everything. Thank you so much! 
Nisha Pahuja:  Thank you so much!  I appreciate your time, all best!

To Kill a Tiger is currently playing in select theaters.