Welcome to SAMSARA

Production Notes

Pan Nalin struggled seven long years to make this project - to convince producers that the film could be made, and further more, made in Ladakh. Pandora became involved in the project right from the very beginning and saw its evolution through to the final cut. Nalin and Pandora Film came together to meet the challenges of making SAMSARA in Ladakh by putting together a highly motivated and passionate crew from 15 different countries. Added to the crew's enthusiasm for the script was Nalin's Zen-like approach to the cinematographic style, which he called 'Zenematography'. This was even reflected in the crew's daily lifestyle where yoga classes were offered and holistic Ayurvedic treatment was made available for those in need of cure or calm. The idea was to build a spiritual atmosphere to foster the successful realisation of this spiritual love-story.

Principle photography began with a highly tense political situation and curfew. Kashmiri Militants had shot three monks; and there were rumours of other problems that might break out at any time. The German Embassy asked the team to quit Ladakh as soon as possible, but such was their belief in the film that they decided to stay and sit out the situation. When filming continued, there were other catastrophes: the camp was completely flooded and shooting stopped for a week as the crew had to be moved out; a generator truck crashed into a valley; Kala the dog escaped and it was impossible to find a double; rumours of a possible India-Pakistan war mounted as a German tourist was gunned down. Besides all this, many crew members suffered from acute altitude sickness. Winter was approaching and principle photography had to be completed before heavy snowfall on the mountain passes would make it impossible to get out. But the crew and cast's faith in the project kept the film rolling on.

Visual Aspects

The guide to determine the look, the colour, and the texture of the costume design for the film came from the natural elements characteristic of Ladakh, as well as its magical light. Further inspiration came from the change and progression of the seasons. The main elements in the first part of the film being the mountains, the monk's clothes were designed to be either in contrast or in harmony with their immediate environment. The idea was to follow palettes of earthy colours that added to the film's organic look. The subtle change of colours in the costumes also reflected the emotional progression that the character was living at that moment of time in the film. In order to match the overall cinematic style of Nalin, costumes were aged; costumes were given a little history, as if they were like the second skin of the actors.

Casting

For the three main roles of Tashi, Pema and Sujata, Nalin wanted professional but anonymous actors. Searching for these actors turned out to be a real challenge. Many long casting sessions sieved through hundreds of known and unknown candidates in New York, Los Angeles, (US Casting director: Vivian Hasbrouk) Paris, London, Hong Kong, (Asia Casting director: Andrew Leung) Berlin, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. The roles were finally attributed to Shawn Ku from New York who plays Tashi, Christy Chung from Hong Kong who plays Pema and Neelesha BaVora from Berlin who plays Sujata. For the other main, second and supporting roles; the colossal casting task was carried out with a troupe of young casting directors armed with little digital cameras throughout the Himalayan region, searching for locals or non-professional actors, to fill roles ranging from a new-born baby of 15 days to a 90 year-old hermit. Some 4,500 candidates were interviewed - 25 of them are in the movie. Later, during pre-production Nalin created an acting workshop with well-known Indian theatre director, Anamika Haksar, to train all locals and non-professional actors in "how NOT to act". Meanwhile other professional actors were engaged in serious preparation for the skills required by their roles, including, handling yaks and horses, monastic prayers, rituals, dances, etc..