Santosh Revisited

English/46mins 21secs/2001
Production: Miditech Pvt. Ltd. (Niret & Nikhil J. Alva)
Commissioned by: Royal Netherlands Embassy

Subject Focus: This sequel to an earlier film ‘Santosh’, revisits the protagonist in rural Rajasthan to see how her life has changed.
 
Summary: A social documentary spanning nearly a decade. In 1993, Miditech followed the life of Santosh a nine-year-old Rajasthani girl, as part of a series of films for UNICEF. Santosh the protagonist of the film, was used to tell the story of the girl child in Rajasthan. Eight years later, in 2001, Miditech went back to Rajasthan to see what had happened since,to Santosh. The film ‘Santosh Revisited’, not only documents the life of Sanoths, but also delves into issues like child marriage, bride sale and female infanticide.

Producer’s/Director’s Profile: Niret Alva - has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in reporting, presenting, anchoring and directing for television. He was the Series Director and anchor for the Panda Award winning environment show Living on the Edge, The Great Escape for the Star network, and the Asian Television Award winning automotive show Wheels. In 2002, he won the award for Best Current Affairs or Infotainment Presenter at the Asian Television Awards, Singapore. In 1998 he anchored a special Indian episode of The Earth Report on BBC World by TVE (a British production house). Niret scripted and co-directed Operation Hot Pursuit & scripted The Great Descent produced for international distribution.

Nikhil Alva set up Miditech, a production house in 1992, with his brother Niret Alva, that specializes in environment and travel programming. His film Living on the Edge, India’s first comprehensive environment series won three awards: The Pinnacle as the Best Information Series which is a national award; an international award - the Green Oscar, or the Panda Award at Wild Screen, in 1996 & the Silver Tree Award for Best Environment series in “Vatavaran 2002”. He directed and scripted The Lions of Gir, which won a Special Jury Award at “Vatavaran 2002” film festival.