Although I established this company in 2016, I had been on locations and sets a year before that. I had shot in multiple locations across different cities, including sets, studios, real locations, someone’s house, and even moving trains. However, there was one particular location that was the most difficult to achieve and I don’t think I would want to do it again. The dumping yards.

Back in 2017, Randy Olson, a National Geographic photographer, came from the US to work on a project called PLASTICS. The project aimed to cover the usage and misusage of plastics in India. We visited various locations for filming, including the slums of Dharavi, the Sion Hospital, Mangaldas Market in Kalbadevi, and others. However, one location that I had never considered filming was the dumping yard of Kalyan, in the neighbouring Thane district.

We had previously visited the Deonar dumping yard in Mankhurd, the largest in the city, but were not granted permission. Deonar is one of India’s largest dumping grounds and requires several layers of permissions, which we didn’t have enough time to obtain. Therefore, we decided to focus on Kalyan, which was relatively easier to achieve.

Randy, myself, and our driver set out on a 4-hour drive at 3:30 am, aiming to arrive before 7 am. However, since we didn’t have a written permission, we had to wait for almost 3-4 hours to receive formal approval from the government authorities. Once we received the approval, the world around us was indescribable. The amount of filth, waste of all sorts, dead animals, and unbearable foul smell were overwhelming. We had to hold our breath and for the next 2-3 hours, I only had my mouth open for oxygen to come in.

Despite the unpleasant conditions, it was already around 12:00 pm, and the sun was directly overhead, making it difficult to take good photos. We decided to return the next day to try again. 

The next day, armed with the necessary permissions, we arrived early and spent almost three to four hours filming in the dump yard. What truly baffled me was the presence of people living there, with their families, and behaving perfectly normally. However, if they were medically diagnosed, the results would be truly alarming. The living conditions were appalling – coal mines, dump yards, slums, and so on. People had become accustomed to negligence and extreme poverty, and we were astounded by the lack of proper maintenance we observed. By law, a dump yard must have a boundary wall for health and safety reasons, but Kalyan had none, and it was a gruesome sight to behold.

After leaving the dump yard, we couldn’t help but ponder the state of waste management in Mumbai. This experience sparked a deeper reflection on grassroots-level administration in India and the need to raise awareness about its shortcomings and the progress being made at every level.