Seral Murmu

Seral Murmu is a researcher and a filmmaker based in East Singhbhum, Jharkhand. Trained in Film Direction and Screenplay Writing at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, his films attempt to highlight the issues of various communities that have been subjected to objectified portrayals in the visual media.

The grant will enable Seral to make a feature-length documentary film on the history of Santhali cinema. He will study the impact cinema has had on the cultural landscape of Santhals in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal; and analyse how affordable digital technology has democratised filmmaking and affected the forms of storytelling in cinema, thus enabling mass production and consumption of content. 

According to Seral, cinema came late to the Santhals. Initially, it became an extension of folk theatre, where artists wanted to make films around folk themes. It was an expensive medium, but many affluent Santhals working in Jamshedpur, Asansol and Baripada invested in producing films. However, even the most successful films remained popular only in local video parlours and rarely made it to theatres. Most of the investors never recovered their money. Many, who had eagerly participated, found it difficult to survive and eventually adopted other means of livelihood. Screenings at home and community spaces were the only viable market for such films. While they did not promise big profits, a steady consumer base was created. The advent of digital technology was the answer to this - local filmmakers could now make quality films with affordable budgets without outside expertise for post-production, while CDs and DVDs took care of the distribution.

Seral will explore how Santhal filmmakers, equipped with modest understanding and skillsets, are dealing with the influence and larger market of commercial cinema. He will interview local filmmakers, artists, film students, academicians, critics and scholars to formulate a visual history of the Santhali cinema. He will also catalogue films to understand the transformations Santhali cinema has undergone throughout.

The outcome of this project will be a feature-length documentary film. The Grantee’s deliverables to IFA with the final reports will be the feature-length documentary film.