The British Council & Indo British Scholars Association is pleased to invite you to a special screening of Catapults to Camera - a multi-award-winning wildlife film from West Bengal that has triggered a remarkable conservation movement among the children of illegal wildlife hunters.
Directed and produced by internationally acclaimed wildlife filmmaker Ashwika (Ash) Kapur, Catapults to Cameras follows Ash on a deeply personal quest to uncover the roots of an illegal wildlife hunting festival in the forests of her home state, West Bengal. Confronted with a wildlife bloodsport taking place on a staggering scale, Ash teams up with conservationist Suvrajyoti Chatterjee to challenge the brutal practice in an unexpected way. In a defiant act of hope, she sets out to ignite change where it matters most: in the hearts of children within these hunting communities. What began as a film has since grown into an active conservation programme across South Bengal, inspiring children from hunting communities to defend wildlife. Following an acclaimed international festival run, Catapults to Cameras has screened at venues including BAFTA Piccadilly, Watershed Cinemas Bristol, NCPA and Soho House Mumbai, Nandan, Kolkata, Kolkata. The film also had a special Earth Day television premiere on PBS in the USA in 2026. British wildlife presenter Steve Backshall MBE recently described the initiative as “the most perfect example of tangible conservation in action.”
Event details: Tuesday, 22 September 2026 from 6.30 p.m. onward at British Council Kolkata, 16 Camac Street, L &T Chambers, Kolkata 700017.
Ashwika Kapur is an internationally award-winning wildlife and natural history filmmaker from Calcutta, currently working with the BBC Natural History Unit in the UK. Her work has appeared across BBC, National Geographic, Netflix, Animal Planet, Discovery, PBS and other major international platforms. She began her career by becoming the first and only Indian woman to win a Panda Award (The Green Oscar) in a global category. With multiple international awards and nominations to her name, Ashwika was recognised by PACT UK, the Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television, as an exceptional international talent in film and television.
For more details, please write to Praveena.Ireland@britishcouncil.org.