Doing away with typical Bollywood movie storylines of young lovers facing family opposition, an upcoming Indian cli-fi film set for release in November 2018 instead features a couple battling climate change in order to be together. The movie uses the Odia language in the film. Subtitles will be available in English as well.

"Kokoli" -- the name of the female character in the movie and also a type of fish --  tells a story of a fishing community along tbe coast of India facing the loss of livelihoods and land as sea levels rise in due to climate change and global warming the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The Odia-language movie will be released in November.

The Odia-language film centers on Miss Kokoli and her boyfriend, who sets out to build a wall to keep towering waves from destroying and uprooting his village - a task he must succeed at in order to win her mother's approval. Romance? Yes.




"Fishing is the only livelihood for them and the only skill they know. They are victims of climate change," filmmaker Snehasis Das told reporter Annie Banerji for the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"Simultaneously, I focus on how love - a relationship - can be disturbed due to calamities," said the 43-year-old director. "It is a lot about how they adapt to love and climate change. Their future hinges on adaptation."

With a nearly 500 km (300 mile) coastline, Odisha state is home to many coastal communities that depend on the sea.

The state is also one of India's most vulnerable to the effects of global warming, hit by rising sea levels, cyclones and floods, with vast stretches of the shoreline being lost to erosion.
In June, the state government warned in a report that fishermen's catches could plummet with rising temperatures.

India faces the most severe threat from climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a survey showed in a March 2018 survey of 67 countries.

UPDATE:


 Award-winning Indin documentary filmmaker Mr Snehasis Das and actress Miss Gargi Mohanty have joined hands for the upcoming film ‘Kokoli – fish out of water’.

Produced under the banner of The Naked Eye in association with Ckinetics, the film reflects the displacement of the fishermen community due to soil erosion in coastal Odisha.
 “The impact of climate change has distressed people in the coastal areas. Though a love story, the film has a strong social message. To give a realistic feel, the film has been completely shot near the beach and Penthakata slums in Puri,” said Snehasis, who has earlier worked with Gargi in ‘Spandan’, based on organ donation.

The title ‘Kokoli’ derives from a sea fish of the same name, played by Gargi. “Her happiness has been ruined by calamities and her struggle is the story of the film,” added Snehasis, who is planning to send it for festivals apart from releasing it in theatres. The film’s cinematography has been done by Srikant Pattnaik while editing will be done by National Award winning Prashant Naik. The only song in the film has been taken from an earlier album of Odisha’s melody queen, Trupti Das.

“Climate change has affected many families. My love gets victimised when families shift back due to soil erosion. The struggle to get united with my lover against all hurdles makes the character stronger, which is the essence of the character,” said Gargi, whose claim to fame is ‘Krantidhara.’  Gargi has always chosen strong scripts over commercial stories.

“Good scripts have always attracted me as there is much to learn on the set. As an artiste, I want to grow with every single project,” added the actress, who discontinued the television mega serial which propelled her career, to give complete focus on the character of Kokoli.