A wildlife photographer’s serendipitous revelation on Facebook sparked a year-long journey into the heart of Rajasthan, India, culminating in the award-winning documentary Leopard Dynasty: The Rise of Rana. The film intimately chronicles the life of a young leopard, Rana, and his ascent within his territory.

A Facebook Post Launched a Cinematic Dynasty

The story of Rana began with a simple tag and a captivating image.

  • Aishwarya Sridhar is the first Indian woman to win the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award.
  • The documentary required nearly 50 terabytes of footage to capture Rana’s story.
  • Leopard Dynasty: The Rise of Rana blends natural history with a distinctly Bollywood aesthetic.

Aishwarya sridhar first encountered images of Rana through a friend’s Facebook post, taken at the Jhalana Leopard Reserve in Jaipur.”Something about him caught my attention,” she recalls. having recently completed documentaries on Asiatic lions and tigers, Sridhar was already envisioning a trilogy focused on India’s big cats, and the leopard was the natural next subject.

During her Christmas break in 2022, Sridhar visited Jhalana, India’s first leopard reserve, with her family. “I saw Rana on my first safari in Jhalana,” she says,struck by the animal’s confidence.”Something clicked,and I knew I had found my next protagonist.” She promptly applied for filming permissions and began her work as a Mumbai-based wildlife photographer, conservationist, and filmmaker, and co-founder & CEO of Bambee Studios, a production company specializing in natural history and environmental documentaries.

Aishwarya Sridhar | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

A Year in the Rajasthan Wilderness

Filming commenced in February 2023,and for over a year,Sridhar immersed herself in the rock-strewn,semi-arid forests of Rajasthan,meticulously tracking rana as he matured and challenged his father for dominance. “It is a constant journey of sitting in the forest, waiting patiently day after day to get those moments that really tie a story together,” she explains. One notably memorable encounter involved Rana attempting to prey on a nilgai-an animal three times his size.

“It is very challenging to find a leopard that would prey on a species like the nilgai,” Sridhar notes. She initially doubted Rana’s success when he targeted a pregnant female, anticipating injury. “I tho