Films
Burning Bright
In Pre-Production
Visit the official Burning Bright website.
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
in the forests of the night...
-- William Blake, 1783
At the mouth of the Ganges, extending over 9,600 square kilometers, the Sunderbans delta contains the largest unbroken mangrove forest in the world. The area is rich in wildlife adapted to this aqua-terrestrial ecosystem, with numerous species of birds, chital deer, the rare Gangetic dolphin, crocodiles, fishing cats, monitor lizards, several rare species of turtle -- and the Royal Bengal Tiger.
The largest member of the cat family, with males averaging close to 500 pounds, tigers are as rare as they are beautiful. The Sunderbans tiger, now strictly protected in West Bengal within a special inner forest reserve, is distinctive even amongst tigers, being aquatic and man-eating; it is for this reason that the Sunderbans has been called "the most dangerous region in the world."
Addressed in honorific language used of deities, the tiger is a cause of both fear and reverence. As one official said, "tigers are the best conservators of the forest; if there were no tigers in the Sunderbans, the forest area would be left bare in months." It is these elements of mysticism and reverence, fear and menace defining the lives of the Sunderbans inhabitants that we hope to capture in epic scale on the IMAX screen.
Burning Bright offers the opportunity of taking its audience to an unimagined world. By showcasing the Royal Bengal Tiger, the film will pay tribute to an animal whose awe-provoking beauty and mystique make it a potent symbol of endangered wildlife everywhere.