That’s a wrap! Principal photography of our film for the Waddar people of India is complete. Of all the different unreached people groups for whom we have made movies, these people are likely the least reached of them all. We faced some unique challenges during this production, and God came through with His usual unique answers. 
Our team arrived in Maharashtra to meet our local partner and cultural advisor with whom we had been in communication since 2014. Regrettably, he backed out of our project leaving us to start from scratch writing a script, finding locations, and (the biggest challenge) finding local actors. In a short time, a simple yet powerful script was researched and developed by our frequent producing partner Binu of Ahmedabad. The local Vaddari villages are basically tents scattered along the highways, so
due to security relating to their high visibility we assembled our own tent village on the spacious property where we were staying. It was a huge blessing to shoot the majority of the movie outside our front door most days without having to pack-up and move equipment constantly. We also turned a room on the property into a studio in which we set up a tent to shoot night scenes during the daytime. This studio also doubled as our audio recording sound stage for voice-over recording. We were truly blessed beyond what we could have asked or imagined, and enjoyed great Indian home-cooked meals every day.
The biggest battle was finding someone to play the role of the believer who shares the Good News in the film. We started with one woman who, after many, many painful takes, couldn’t get the lines straight and didn’t have a very good attitude. The Vaddari man helping with casting found another woman who seemed like a great option, but the night before we were to shoot scenes with her, he called and said this woman had died in a car accident. (We are quite confident that this was false and just a dramatic way of getting her off the hook from acting. We didn’t want to press the matter to bring shame to the man who was helping us.) The third woman rehearsed well, but on camera couldn’t get out the name of Lord Jesus (Prabhu Yeshu) and kept saying the names of other gods. It felt like there was a significant spiritual block. The next day was the big national festival, Holi, so we took a break and had a beautiful time of worship and intercession, surrendering everything into the Lord’s hands and trusting Him for a breakthrough.
The next day was just that: a day of breakthrough and rejoicing for our crew. The character’s age was changed allowing us to cast a much younger woman in the role, changing a Grandmother into an Auntie character. Our new recruit did an amazing job responding to direction and saying her lines very well; what a breath of fresh air! With this new actress and a slightly revised script we were able to re-shoot the necessary scenes and maintain our schedule for an on-time completion of the production.
After various conversations with local actors and helpers, it seems a movie centering on education for young girls is quite fitting. Most girls in this people group are married off by the time they finish 8th grade, if they are even given the opportunity to study at all. The woman we cast as the “Auntie” who shares the Good News, is maybe 19 or 20, and was married 6 years ago. Her open-minded husband shared that he knows this isn’t the best way, but there is so much pressure from society to marry the girls young, or else face the shame of not being able to find a husband for the girl once she reaches the “old” age of say 19 or 20. Another actor is a young widow of around 26 (married at the age of 12) with 4 young kids. Her two sons are the first ever in their family to learn to read and write. Her 10-year-old daughter has to stay at home to care for the 4-year-old daughter while she goes to work in the fields during the day. We hope that this film can be a positive contribution to raise awareness of this significant social issue that greatly impacts the prevalence of poverty, abuse of women, sickness, and other issues. 
Of course, the movie’s most important message is how a Vaddari family encounters the spiritual authority and love of our Savior. Despite this people group being a tribal group and “untouchable caste,” which often means greater openness to the Good News, they have been quite resistant over the years. They have a very strong community identity and live very separate from other Hindu groups.
A local Hindu was our Man of Peace on this project, providing most of the key actors in our production. His experience on our set was positive and we prayed often for him and his family. When we finished our production he informed us that he and his family would praying only to Jesus in the future and desired to attend a gathering of Christian believers. We sincerely hope and pray that this entire family will flourish and grow in their relationship with Our Lord Jesus. Pray for them. Please also pray that this film will capture the hearts of more Vaddari people to bring true light and life into their community. Give thanks to God for another successful Frontier Filmmaking Seminar and gospel film production in India that was completed well, on time, and under budget.
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