Pradip Krishen (born 1949) is an Indian filmmaker, naturalist and environmentalist. He directed three films, '' Massey Sahib'' in 1985, ''

In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones ''In Which Annie Gives it Those Ones'' is a 1989 Indian English-language television 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 ...

'' in 1989 and '' Electric Moon'' for

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

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

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

who also acted in his films. He subsequently gave up filmmaking, and since 1995, has worked as a naturalist and environmentalist.

Education

Pradip Krishen was born in New Delhi in 1949 and educated at Mayo College and St. Stephen's College, then at

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. He taught history at Ramjas College of

University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

, New Delhi.

Career

Film-making

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

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its right bank, ...

(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 wor ...

prize at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

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 At the 1988

National Film Award The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

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

. *Electric Moon: A 1992

production, spoofed game-park tourists, erstwhile royals, social pretence, and ecology. At the 40th National Film Awards, 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, is India's State-owned enterprise, state-owned public broadcasting, public television broadcaster. Established by the Government of India on 15 September 1959, it is owned by the Ministry of Information and B ...

called ''Bargad / The Banyan Tree'', a project he was forced to abandon before completion.

Environmental work

Starting in 1995, Krishen began studying trees and spending time in the jungles of Panchmarhi 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 near Mehrangarh fort in

Jodhpur Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...

, Rajasthan. He was briefly associated with the Aga Khan Trust in an eco-initiative in the Sunder Nursery in New Delhi. In 2014, Krishen began work on a new gardening initiative at Abha Mahal in Nagaur 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 cong ...

Penguin Group Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media company, media Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a Mergers and acquisitions, mer ...

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

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

.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 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'', 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 Mass media 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 Academic staff of Delhi University 20th-century Indian biologists Scientists from Delhi 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers