Waste and The City - The Mavallipura Landfill Story

Synopsis

Waste management is one of the greatest crises for fast-growing cities. The film looks at the story of Mavallipura landfill in Bangalore to investigate how research, citizen action, and public government can drive real change. More than one million tons of waste were collected at the site between 2003 and 2012. Local residents protested there for years. Research by the Environment Support Group helped close the landfill. That work also led to court orders for citywide waste management. The film also focuses on sanitation workers in Karnataka, called Pourakarmikas. They still face the same poor working conditions, discrimination, and exploitation as forty years ago. Bangalore is a global hub for science and technology. For these workers, very little has changed.

Director Biography

Arishma Rao, Vishwesh Bhagirathi Shivaprasad

Vishwesh Shiva Prasad

Documentary filmmaker, co-founder, producer/director, cinematographer and editor at Teepoi Films, Bengaluru. With over 18 years in filmmaking, his work spans documentary films, brand films and motion pictures, driven by curiosity, visual direction and a deep interest in people, culture, heritage and lived experiences. With a background in theatre, fine arts, performing arts, lighting and set design, Vishwesh approaches filmmaking as a coming together of image, sound, space, emotion and narrative. His practice moves across visual direction, cinematography, editing and post-production, shaping films with care, honesty and respect for the story in front of the camera.

Karishma Rao

Co-founder of Teepoi Films Pvt. Ltd. since 2008, a Bengaluru-based documentary film company. With a degree in Architecture and years of experience in documenting tangible and intangible heritage, her interest lies in exploring stories about culture and tradition and their interpretation into written and other visual formats. Her focus is on the preproduction of documentary films from content through direction, interpreting data to develop scripts that convey concepts using the visual

medium.

Credits

Camera / Kamera

Vishwesh Bhagirathi Shivaprasad, Vinayak Bhat, Suchit Puri

Editing / Kurgu

Karishma Rao, Vishwesh Bhagirathi Shivaprasad, Vinayak Bhat

Sound / Ses

Vishwesh Bhagirathi Shivaprasad

Production / Yapım

Teepoi Films, Vishwesh Bhagirathi Shivaprasad