Naresh Bedi | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Haridwar, Uttarakhand, India |
| Occupation(s) | Filmmaker, photographer |
| Known for | Documentary & wildlife films |
| Children | Ranjana, Rajiv Bedi, Ajay Bedi Vijay Bedi |
| Parent | Dr. Ramesh Bedi |
| Awards | Padma Shri Wildscreen Panda Award Earth Watch Award CMS-UNEP Prithvi Ratna Award Eastman Kodak Award Classic Telly Award International Wildlife Film Festival Award Wildlife Asia Award International Wild Track Africa Award Whale Award |
| Website | www |
Naresh Bedi is an Indian filmmaker,[1] the eldest of the Bedi Brothers and a member of the second generation of three generations of Wildlife photographers and filmmakers.[2] He is the first Asian to receive a Wildscreen Panda Award[3][4] and the first Indian to receive a wildlife film nomination for theBritish Academy Film Awards.[5] He was honoured by theGovernment of India in 2015 withPadma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.[6]
...Wild life filmmaking is indeed a good profession to pursue. But one has to be driven by passion. But if someone has money on mind, then I would rather suggest not taking up this profession, says Naresh Bedi.[3]
Naresh Bedi was born in Haridwar in the present day Indian state ofUttarakhand, to Ramesh Bedi,[3] a wildlife photographer and author of 74 books on the subject.[2] He started developing an interest in photography from an early age and along with his younger brother, Rajesh Bedi, pursued the interest with aRolleicord camera, presented by their father.[2] His passion helped him to cover an official visit byJawaharlal Nehru while he was only in his teens and had his first exhibition at the age 19, sponsored byMax Mueller Bhavan, the Indian wing ofGoethe-Institut.[2]
Bedi is a graduate from theFilm and Television Institute of India, Pune with a gold medal for the best all round performance.[2] One of his first ventures was the coverage ofConnaught Place and the zoo in New Delhi, focusing on the feeding of animals there. The film was bought byDoordarshan for an amount ofUS$ 1800.[2] Later, a chance meeting withBert Haanstra, the renowned Dutch filmmaker, at a cricket match in Kanpur, fetched him the opportunity to film a few portions of Haanstra's film,Ape and Super Ape.[2]
Naresh Bedi joined with his brother Rajesh in the 1970s and shot several projects forNational Geographic,Stern andGeo before making a film,Cobra – The Snake God,[7] which was bought byBBC andDiscovery Channel.[2] The next venture,Flying Prince of Wildlife, BBC production, followed the steps ofPrince Bernhard of the Netherlands, a known wildlife enthusiast, and had the Prince making appearance andRichard Attenborough handling the narration.[8] A few more films, two on tiger, one each on elephants, wild dogs and snow leopards, followed before the film,The Ganges Gharial was made in 1983.[9] The film fetched him theWildscreen Panda Award for the best cinematography in 1984[10] and was also screened at the Centenary Film Festival 2013.[11]
Bedi's films have been aired by several notable television channels such asBBC,Channel4,Canal Plus and theDiscovery Channel.[2][12] Their work,Sadhus: India's Holy Men, was premiered on BBC.[2] He has worked with renowned filmmaker,Mira Nair, on her film,Monsoon Wedding, as the cinematographer of the second unit.[13] His other mainstream engagements were withRichard Attenborough for a 50-minute promotional film shot for the biopic,Gandhi and withDavid Lean for a promotional film forA Passage to India.[14] His documentary,Cherub of the Mist, is reported to be the first conservation film about thered panda.[12][15]
Bedi is reported to have filmed several rare wildlife moments such as the first recording of the reproduction ofgharials, nursing, multiple mating and leopard hunting of tigers and breeding ofbar-headed geese.[5] He has filmed Tibetan and Indian wild dogs (dholes),Himalayan lynx andsnow leopard for the first time.[5] He is also known to have made innovative accessories like a 10 feet tripod for filming predatory animals.[5] Criticisms have also surfaced with Bedi being accused of shooting a captive tiger for a scene showing the animal in water.[2]
Bedi is credited with six books,[16] co-authored by his brother, Rajesh Bedi, such asIndia's Wild Wonders,[17] apart from several films he has produced so far.[2] His sons, Ajay Bedi andVijay Bedi, are filmmakers in their own rights, taking the trade to the third generation. They were nominated for theEmmy Awards in its 28th edition for Editing[18] and have won the Wildscreen Panda Award in 2004 for their film,The Policing Langur.[12][19]
Naresh Bedi is a recipient of the Earth Watch Award ofNational Geographic Society andEastman Kodak Award.[2] He received the Wildscreen Panda Award, popularly known as theGreen Oscars, in 1984, for his cinematography for the documentary,The Ganges Gharial, the first Asian to receive the award.[3] In 1987, two of his films,Saving The Tiger andMan-Eating Tiger, won nominations, though unsuccessfully, for theBritish Academy Film Awards, making him the first Indian to receive a wildlife film nomination in theBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts awards.[23] He was awarded thePrithvi Ratna Award by the Centre for Media Studies andUnited Nations Environment Programme in 2005.[3]Cherub of the Mist, the first film on the conservation ofred panda,[15] received 15 awards including three Classic Telly Awards,[28] Wild Screen Panda Award, International Wildlife Film Festival Award, Wildlife Asia Award and International Wild Track Africa award.[5] He has also won theWhale Award at the Wildlife Asia Film Festival, Singapore for his contribution to wildlife films.[5] TheGovernment of India awarded him the civilian honour ofPadma Shri in 2015.[6]
