Zorawar: Creating Frontiers
A historical documentary in production with the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles on the Dogra general who took an army across Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit — and into Tibet.
- Client
- JAK Rifles Regiment
- Services
- Research, Field Production, Direction, Post-production
- Channel
- Green channel
The film
Between 1834 and 1841, General Zorawar Singh took an army across some of the most difficult terrain on earth — Ladakh, Baltistan, Gilgit — and then into Tibet, where he was killed in 1842. The campaigns brought the northern territories into Gulab Singh’s dominion and shaped the frontier India still holds.
The brief
Zorawar: Creating Frontiers is a historical documentary we are producing with the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles — the regiment whose lineage runs directly back to the forces he commanded. The subject is nearly two centuries old and there is no footage of any of it, so everything the film shows has to be built from what survives: the landscape, the regimental record, archival material, and whatever physical trace remains.
The approach
The regiment as primary source. 4 JAK RIF — formerly the Fateh Shibji Paltan — served under Zorawar Singh directly, and captured the Mantalai Standard from the Chinese Imperial Army in Tibet in 1841. That institutional memory is the closest thing to a first-hand account available, and the film is built around that access.
Landscape carrying the campaign. The campaigns were fought at altitude, in winter, across passes that are hard to cross with modern equipment. With limited archive, the geography does the narrative work — which means shooting there.
In production
The film is written to work outside the regiment — for people who do not already know the honours — while staying true to the institution that commissioned it. In production now; this page grows as the film does.
The numbers
- 1834–1841
- Campaigns
- 4 JAK RIF
- Partner
- In production
- Status