Toronto-based Ameesha Joshi was intrigued by women boxers after she came across a photo exhibition in Montreal. She talks to Team Viva about her journey to India, how she struggled to film these women and the difficulties she faced in condensing 197 hours of footage into 87 minutes
When MC Mary Kom returned to India after winning the bronze medal at the 2012 london Olympics, there were three things she brought home with her pride for her country, the medal and a little known Anna Sarkissian, who followed Kom for one simple reason to acquaint herself with the life and daily struggles of a woman boxer in India. She went with Kom to her village in Manipur and spent days with her trying to understand her life and how she balanced her home and her sport.
And she did not stop there. Sarita Devi and Chhoto loura were on her list, too. Along with Toronto-based Ameesha Joshi, Sarkissian recently released a 87-minute documentary on the women boxers in India titled With This Ring. It can be considered as a clutter breaker in the series of biopics Bollywood is churning out on cricketers and sprinters. It neither boasts of a star, who spent a chunk of his or her time in the gym trying to get into shape, nor of a huge crew and fancy editing. It is a simple story of the daily struggles that these women of steel go through to get a decent training ground, proper guidance and the restrictions they face from society.
It all started with a photograph exhibition that Joshi attended in Montreal in 2015 displaying the works of Danish photographer Miriam KS Dalsgaard, capturing women boxers at a beach in Chennai.
Growing up in Canada, Joshi did not know that India had female boxers to begin with. “Not uptil that exhibition, and it took be by surprise,” she said. That aspect intrigued her so much that she started digging up information on the same but could not find much material. “There was very less information on the Internet and I had no idea where to get them from,” she added. It was then that she got to know about Mary Kom, already a two time world champion by then. “I decided to make a film on female boxers in India because I wanted more information on these women,” she shared.
Her decision brought her to India later the same year. Although it was a family trip but her main motive was to find out more female boxers in the country. “When I met a few more and saw them practicing, despite the hardships, I knew I had to do it. Their practice sessions were incredible,” Joshi said.
Together with Sarkissian, Joshi met a few women boxers who were in the initial stages of their training, apart from Kom, Sarita Devi and Chhoto loura. “They are really big star but still down to earth. They are the most hard working women I have ever met. They are international players but when I met them, I found them ordinary and simple girls like us,” Joshi recounted.
Five summers and 197 hours of footage later, Joshi and Sarkissian were finally satisfied with the information they got. The only task that loomed over them was condensing all the content into an hour of documentary. That was when Jackie Dzuba came in as the editor.
“We chopped a video of 197 hours into one hour thanks to Dzuba. We met on Skype to exchange ideas and we reviewed cuts via Vimeo. It took a long time and we faced many hurdles, but we made it through,” Joshi elaborated.
The process was long and tedious and they began by taking detailed noted of the footage collected. Joshi worked with a huge team of volunteer translators to make subtitles for the interviews taken in Hindi, Manipuri and nine other regional languages. “I have never lived in India. So while I may understand a bit of the language, I cannot speak it,” Joshi pointed out and mentioned that she was grateful to Tamara Taddeo, a filmmaker friend, for helping in giving shape to the film.