Pradip Krishen (born 1949) is an Indian filmmaker, naturalist and environmentalist. He has directed three films, ''

Massey Sahib ''Massey Sahib'' is a 1985 Hindi drama film directed by Pradip Krishen, starring Raghubir Yadav in the title role. It was Krishen's first film, and was an adaptation of Joyce Cary's 1939 novel '' Mister Johnson''. It won Yadav two international ...

'' in 1985, ''

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones ''In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones'' is a 1989 Indian English-language TV film written by Arundhati Roy and directed by Pradip Krishen. It stars Arjun Raina as the title character, with Roshan Seth and Arundhati Roy in key roles. The film a ...

'' in 1989 and ''

Electric Moon ''Electric Moon'' is a 1992 Indian film directed by Pradip Krishen and written by Arundhati Roy. The film was produced by Grapevine Media for Channel 4 Television and Bobby Bedi's Kaleidoscope Entertainment and was reviewed at the International ...

'' for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

, UK in 1991. His films have won significant Indian and international awards, and ''

'' acquired cult status in the years after it was made. He is married to

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

who also acted in his films but they currently live separately from each other. He subsequently gave up filmmaking, and since 1995, has worked as a naturalist and environmentalist.

Education

Pradip Krishen is born in New Delhi in 1949 and educated at

Mayo College Mayo College (informally Mayo) is a boys-only independent boarding school in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. It was founded in 1875 by Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo, who was the Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872. This makes it one of the oldest Pub ...

and St. Stephen's College, then at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

. He taught history at

Ramjas College Ramjas College is a college of the University of Delhi located in North Campus of the university in New Delhi, India.The college admits both undergraduates and post-graduates, and awards degrees under the purview of the University of Delhi. R ...

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

, New Delhi.

Career

Film-making

Before becoming a documentary filmmaker (Krishen made popular science documentaries). *Massey Sahib: 1985

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

movie of Francis Massey, who is the 'English Type Babu' at the Deputy Commissioner's office, in a small, tribal district town of Central India in 1929. This film won 'Best Actor' Award for Raghuvir Yadav at the

Delhi International Film Festival Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

(1986) and the film won a

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for Fédération Internationale de la PRESse CInématographique) is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world fo ...

prize at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

1987. *In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones: 1989 Indian English TV film, in which it captured the anguish among the students prevailing in professional institutions. It is based on the life of students of

School of Planning and Architecture The Schools of Planning and Architecture (SPAs) are a group of autonomous public institutes of higher education under Ministry of Education, Government of India. They were established with the objectives of providing quality Architecture and p ...

At the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

National Film Award The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directora ...

it won the award for Best Feature Film in English as well as

Best Screenplay Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporatio ...

for

. *Electric Moon: A 1992

production, spoofed game-park tourists, erstwhile royals, social pretence, and ecology. At the

40th National Film Awards The 40th National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 1992. Ceremony took place in 199 ...

, the film won the award for Best Feature Film in English. Krishen began work on a 21 episode television series intended for

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

called ''Bargad / The Banyan Tree'', a project Krishen was forced to abandon before completion, due to interference from the production house he was working for.

Environmental work

Starting in 1995, Krishen began studying trees and spending time in the jungles of

Panchmarhi Pachmarhi is a hill station in Narmadapuram district of Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It has been the location of a cantonment (Pachmarhi Cantonment) since British Raj. It is widely known as ''Satpura ki Rani'' ("Queen of Satpura") ...

in Madhya Pradesh, with the help of a forester friend. Krishen taught himself field botany and began identifying and photographing Delhi's trees, extensively exploring the city's green habitat. In the course of his work, Krishen led numerous public "tree-walks" on Sunday mornings and became a keen ecological gardener. Krishen has created "native-plant" gardens in Delhi, west Rajasthan, and Garhwal, and is currently working on a large rewilding scheme at

Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park Rao Jodha Desert Rock Park, spreads over 72 hectares, near the historic Mehrangarh Fort in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The park contains ecologically restored desert and arid land vegetation. The park was created in 2006 to try and restore the na ...

near

Mehrangarh Mehrangarh Fort covers an area of 1,200 acres (486 hectares) in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India. The complex is located on a hilltop around 122 metres above the surrounding plain, and was constructed by Rajput ruler Rao Jodha, though most of the exi ...

fort in

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

, Rajasthan. He was briefly associated with the Aga Khan Trust in an eco-initiative in the

Sunder Nursery Sunder Nursery, formerly called Azim Bagh or Bagh-e-Azeem, is a 16th-century heritage park complex adjacent to the Humayun's Tomb, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Delhi. Originally known as Azim Bagh and built by the Mughals in the 16th century, ...

in New Delhi. In 2014, Krishen began work on a new gardening initiative at Abha Mahal in

Nagaur Nagaur is a city and municipal council in Nagaur district of the state of Rajasthan in India. It is the administrative headquarters of Nagaur District. The Nagaur city lies about midway between Jodhpur and Bikaner. Nagaur is famous for spices ...

Fort, Rajasthan. The following year, he took over as Project Director of the gardens of the Calico Museum in Ahmedabad, and most recently, leads a team of horticulturists and landscape architects to restore an extensive set of sand dunes in Jaipur city, Rajasthan. Krishen's book ''Trees of Delhi: A Field Guide'', published by

Dorling Kindersley Dorling Kindersley Limited (branded as DK) is a British multinational publishing company specialising in illustrated reference books for adults and children in 63 languages. It is part of Penguin Random House, a subsidiary of German media co ...

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

in 2006, met with popular and critical acclaim, and became a best-seller in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

.Go take a walk with Pradip Krishen’s Trees of Delhi
Gopal Sathe, ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split betw ...

'', 21 May 2006. Krishen's second book ''Jungle Trees of Central India'', published by Penguin India, was released in 2014.

Works

* ''Trees of Delhi: A Field Guide'', by Pradip Krishen. Published by Dorling Kindersley (India), 2006. . * "Jungle trees of central india" by pradip krishen published by penguin books .

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Krishen, Pradip 1949 births Living people People from New Delhi Indian naturalists Indian environmental writers Film directors from Delhi Indian documentary filmmakers Hindi-language film directors Indian botanical writers Mayo College alumni St. Stephen's College, Delhi alumni Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Delhi University faculty 20th-century Indian biologists Scientists from Delhi 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers