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Draft:Tiger 24

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  • Comment: Production and Awards section are entirely unsourced Tenshi! (Talk page) 13:12, 28 July 2025 (UTC)

Tiger 24: The Making of a Man-Eater is a 2022 feature-length wildlife documentary film written, directed, and produced by Warren Pereira. It follows the story of a wild tiger known as T-24 (nicknamed "Ustad"), who was removed from Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, India, after being accused of killing four people. The film explores the resulting legal and public battles, highlighting themes of conservation policy, animal rights, and media influence.

The film won the Panda Award at Wildscreen, which is regarded as the most prestigious honor in the wildlife film industry.[1]

In March 2023, the film was licensed by Amazon Prime Video India.[2]

In August 2023, Netflix licensed the documentary and described it as: "The murder of a forest guard takes a polarizing turn when a tiger is jailed and named as the lone suspect in this thought-provoking documentary."[3]

Synopsis

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The film documents the alleged killings by Tiger T-24 and his controversial removal to a zoo-like enclosure. It features interviews with activists, forest officials, legal experts, and villagers. The documentary builds tension around whether T-24 was a man-eater or a victim of bureaucratic overreach, culminating in a case presented to the High Court of Jaipur and Supreme Court of India.

Production

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The film was directed, produced, photographed, and edited by Warren Pereira under the W Films banner."Tiger 24 – Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 28 July 2025. In the film’s narration, Pereira remarks that he “did not know what [he] was doing” when he began the project in 2012, initially flying from Los Angeles to Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in India twice a year in search of a subject tiger. After encountering the tiger known as T-24 (Ustad), he chose to focus the documentary on the animal. The first three years of filming centered on wild tiger behavior, but after T-24 was removed from the wild following the deaths of several men who had entered his territory, the film shifted into an investigative narrative rather than a traditional nature documentary.Tiger 24 (Documentary film). 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2025.

Filming was carried out with a skeleton crew in the style of independent filmmaking. Pereira acted as director, cinematographer, and on-camera presenter, often shooting from an open jeep with a local driver and one or two assistant camera operators."Tiger 24 – Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 28 July 2025.

After completing principal photography independently, Pereira entered a collaboration agreement with a Los Angeles-based production company for post-production support. When the arrangement was not carried through to completion due to creative differences, Pereira chose to finish the film on his own to maintain creative control, self-financing the post-production process and serving as the sole editor, editing in his Hollywood loft on an iMac over the course of three years from 2019 through 2021. Filmmaker friends contributed to the effort, including assistant editor Luis Alba, as well as creative consultants Jarret Rosenblatt, Phoenix Vaughn, Eric Hersey, and others who were credited on the film."In the Booth with Shawn Booth – Warren Pereira Interview". YouTube. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2025.

In 2019, following the breakup with the Los Angeles production company, Pereira explored several additional post-production collaboration agreements with other companies in the United States, Europe, and India. However, due to concerns over creative control and unfavorable financial terms, he ultimately chose to take on the editing himself. This decision proved arduous given the volume of footage collected over nearly a decade, which had to be condensed into a 90-minute investigative narrative. "In the Booth with Shawn Booth – Warren Pereira Interview". YouTube. 28 August 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2025.

The film contains interviews with several prominent Indian tiger experts, including conservationist Valmik Thapar."Tiger 24 (2022) – Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 28 July 2025.

Footage in the wild was primarily shot on the Canon C500 in 4K RAW format, providing one of the only known 4K RAW archival records of the wild tiger T-24 (Ustad)."Tiger 24 – Technical Specs". IMDb. Retrieved 28 July 2025.

Color correction was completed by Luke Cahill, whose past credits include ‘‘Tangerine’’ and the Academy Award-winning Netflix documentary ‘‘Icarus’’. Sound design was handled by Aaron Levy, a veteran re-recording mixer known for his work on ‘‘The Butterfly Effect’’, ‘‘Charlie Countryman’’, ‘‘NCIS’’, and ‘‘Supergirl’’. The film’s original score was composed by Belgian musician Kreng, with a theme song by Mel Elias.

Executive producers include Academy Award nominee Howard Barish, Emmy Award nominee Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) nominee Eagle Egilsson, Producers Guild of America (PGA) Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures nominee Stephen Nemeth, as well as Zach Mann and Jeremy Bell."Tiger 24 (2022) – Full Cast & Crew". IMDb. Retrieved 28 July 2025.

The film was shot and edited over more than a decade, beginning in 2012, and includes extensive field footage from Ranthambore, Delhi, Pune, and Mumbai, alongside courtroom documentation, protest coverage, and expert commentary. ‘‘Boca Raton’’ magazine referred to the film as a “labor of love” in its review of the project’s long gestation and independent nature."Movie Review: "Tiger 24"—A Beastly True-Crime Saga". Boca Raton Magazine. 15 June 2022. Retrieved 27 July 2025. Pereira’s journey from a biology student at Lewis & Clark College to filming in Indian jungles was also profiled in his alma mater’s magazine."Biology Alum Releases Tiger 24 into the Wild". Lewis & Clark College. Retrieved 27 July 2025.o-the-wild |website=Lewis & Clark College News |access-date=27 July 2025}}</ref>

Release

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Tiger 24 premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival in April 2022, where it was nominated for the Greg Gund Memorial Standing Up Award. It won Best Feature Documentary at the 2022 Burbank International Film Festival.[4] That same year, the film was a finalist at the Jackson Wild Media Awards and received two nominations at the Wildscreen Festival for the prestigious Panda Awards. It won the Panda Award for Onscreen Talent at Wildscreen 2022. The film was an official selection at the 2022 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival.[5]

In 2022, the film was picked up for US and Canadian distribution by Elevation Pictures.[4] It received a limited theatrical release in the United States and qualified for the Academy Awards. Distribution in North America included transactional video on demand and a special edition Blu-ray through Universal Studios.[6]

Tiger 24 was released theatrically in India on January 20, 2023, in collaboration with AA Films.[7] The film opened in multiple cities including Mumbai, Pune, Jaipur, and Delhi, screening at major multiplex chains such as PVR and Cinepolis. It was the first-ever theatrical release for a documentary centered on India's national animal, the tiger.

In January 2023, Indian actor John Abraham shared the film's trailer on social media to support wildlife conservation efforts.[8] Indian actress Dia Mirza also publicly supported Tiger 24 on her Instagram account.[9]

The film was licensed by Prime Video India in March 2023[10] ...and by Netflix USA and Canada in August 2023.[11]

Reception

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The film holds a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.[12] Reviews from critics include:

  • Film Threat praised its "haunting intimacy."[13]
  • Oregon Arts Watch described it as "thoughtful and poetic."[14]
  • On LAist's FilmWeek radio show, critic Wade Major called it a "fascinating documentary."[15]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ "'My Garden of a Thousand Bees' leads the way at 2022 Wildscreen Panda Awards". Wildscreen. 17 October 2022. Retrieved 2025-07-27. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ^ "Warren Pereira's award-winning conservation documentary Tiger 24 available to rent on Prime Video India". Business Standard. Retrieved 2025-07-27. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ "Tiger 24". Netflix. Retrieved 2025-07-27. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b "Tiger 24 Picked Up by Elevation Pictures". Deadline. 14 September 2022.
  5. ^ "2022 Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival Film Schedule" (PDF). Cinéfest Sudbury. August 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2025.
  6. ^ "Tiger 24 Blu-ray". Amazon.
  7. ^ "India's Most Controversial Tiger Comes to Theatres with Tiger 24". Glamsham.
  8. ^ "John Abraham Shares Tiger 24 Trailer in a Bid to Advocate for Wildlife Conservation". Firstpost. 18 January 2023.
  9. ^ "Tiger 24 Trailer Shared by Dia Mirza". Instagram.
  10. ^ "Tiger 24 on Prime Video India". ANI News.
  11. ^ "Tiger 24 – New on Netflix USA". New on Netflix USA. Retrieved 2025-07-27. {{cite web}}: |archive-url= is malformed: timestamp (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ "Tiger 24". Rotten Tomatoes.
  13. ^ "Tiger 24 Review". Film Threat.
  14. ^ "Tiger 24: Man-eater or Innocent Victim?". Oregon Arts Watch.
  15. ^ "FilmWeek". LAist.
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