Famous Australian filmmaker and activist David Bradbury landed in India on Sep 11 to spend a few weeks exploring the country with his children, Omar, aged 14, and Nakeita, aged 21.
Upon arriving at the Chennai airport, David—a two-time Oscar nominee—was halted by immigration officers, although Omar and Nakeita were allowed entry.
David was led to an airport room where he was supposedly detained for a whole day before being made to return to Thailand, the country from whom the three had arrived.
David had to bid farewell to his children, hoping they would explore India on their own. One of his planned visits was to Varanasi, where he intended to pay a "Hindu farewell" to his late spouse, Treena Lenthall, who was also Omar's mother.
David never received an explanation for his denial of entry into the territory. But he thinks it might be related to his documentary, which followed Tamil Nadu villagers' protests against the Kudankulam nuclear plant in 2012.
“We had spent two weeks in Bangkok before coming to India. There was a delay in processing dad’s visa, but it had come through in the end, and we were excited to travel to India. It is my first time here, and we thought dad would be with us to show us around. He had come before in 2012 with Omar, who was then only three years old,” Nakeita said on Sep 18.
They left India on Sep 26, having completed the schedule as planned. They have communicated with David Bradbury, who will meet them in Milan for the next phase of their tour.
"We had stood just a few meters across from him when we were allowed into India, and he was not," Naiketa said.
"The officials at the airport asked us to convince my father to go back to Thailand," Omar said.
David explained his experience at the airport. saying, "After they pulled me aside at Chennai airport with my kids within eyesight of me, just 10 meters away, they took me to a side room in the airport, which had a single bed, mattress, no sheets, or blanket. Rubbish on the floor and a metal grill on the door, which had a view out to a wall beyond. I was allowed to go to the toilet up the corridor, but there was one time when, despite my calling out, they didn't come back to let me out. So I was obliged to relieve my bladder into a paper cup I found on the floor."
Several times while in detention, he asked to speak with the Australian embassy in Delhi. He said, "They ignored this request." The interrogators asked him to unlock his phone, but he refused.
When two guys in plainclothes interviewed David in 2012 regarding his involvement in anti-nuclear protests in Tamil Nadu's Idinthakarai, David had a glimmer of what was going on. He had recorded the village residents' protest against the nuclear facility at Kudankulam.
“I told the interrogating officers that if India was truly a democracy, it should value the rights of the media to have access to marginalized people and tell their side of the story. I told the two officers that I agreed with the people of Idinthakarai that it was'madness' to build one, let alone six nuclear reactors on a major earthquake fault line that had swept one thousand locals to their deaths in the tsunami of 2004,” said David Bradbury.
David Bradbury was crucial in the protests against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant through creating a documentary that brought attention to regional issues.
Through his work, he brought the voices of impacted people to a wider audience, criticized government policies, and increased global awareness of the dangers nuclear energy poses to human health and the environment.
