The Tour of Nilgiris 2016 is a 8 day cycle tour and race through the western ghats, passing through some of the most beautiful hill ranges and forests of South India. The race starts in Bangalore, and culminates at a different city every year. With a 110 cyclists in bright clothing and fast cycles, we make quite a few heads turn in the villages we pass by.

Day 1 was chaos. The vehicle that was supposed to transport us to locations across the race, was apparently the last support vehicle, which would always be last to leave. Top it off with no sleep from the previous night’s edit, and shooting with a heavy FS7 that was almost rendered useless, Day 1 was a huge learning curve.

So I shot back to Bangalore by bus, jumped on my bike, and joined the crew on day 3, and the rest, you can see in the film. The tour of Nilgiris 2016 is a race like no other. It’s more like a bunch of bums who’ve met after a year, sharing the best and worst moments on the road. But while it may look like it’s all fun, mind you, these guys are really really fast. Some covered the Bangalore to Mysore route of 140kms in just 4 hours.

Shot by
Aditi Shastri
Puneeth Kumar – Ariel cinematography
Neil D’souza

Edit & Direction by Neil D’souza

Music by Bensound