In 1894, amid the winter snows of the northern United States, the English author Rudyard Kipling wrote stories set in an imaginary jungle in the heart of tropical India. Around the world, those stories are simply known as “The Jungle Book”. For many years Kalyan Varma, an acclaimed Indian wildlife cinematographer, had dreamt of bringing the stories of the Jungle Book to the screen. But not as the fables that Kipling had imagined: Kalyan wished to bring the real Jungle Book to life, to show the jungle as well as the other environments that the animal characters inhabited. Shere Khan, the predatory tiger, is almost a part of everyday language. So too Hathi, the bull elephant, and Baloo the lazy but loveable bear. Bagheera, the mysterious black panther, and Kaa the ancient female python, are both favourites and so too the tribes of the monkey folk. Less well known is the character that director Jeremy Hogarth knew was central to both the story and the film – the Indian wolf. And throughout the film we see Bagheera, the iconic black panther, watching and knowing everything.