JUNGLE SEARCH

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 May 1935, Page 11

JUNGLE SEARCH

FOR FILM STAR.

BOMBAY, April 1

Mr Robert Flaherty, producer of the film “Man of Aran,” arrived in Bombay from England yesterday. He is starting to search on behalf of London Film Productions Ltd., for a young mahout (elephant driver) to take the leading part in Kipling’s “Toomai of the Elephants,” from “The Jungle Book.” He said that, though several Indian boys had been questioned elsewhere none had been found suitable. Mr Flaherty intends to go to the Mysore jungle, where he is hopeful of discovering the boy he wants among the real mahouts. The whole film depends upon the charm of the Kipling conversation between the boy and the elephant and on numerous difficult parts,- such as when the boy* is held aloft in an elephant’s trunk while wild elephants give a salute. - Mr Flaherty intends to make elephant grunts and other noises interpretable to any audience, thus creating an elephant language. He will take elaborate photographic equipment into the jungle, and, by means of special lighting sets, hopes to secure unprecedented films of animal life, such as tigers killing and feeding. Mr Flaherty and his party propose to remain there for a year.