Maasi and Thangaraj Sadayan, father and son, are proud carriers of a family legacy unique to the Irula people of India. This rural tribe is renowned, not just in the southern state of Tamil Nadu but around the world, for their ability to catch snakes in the wild. 

Since the Indian government banned the export of snakeskin in the seventies, families like the Sadayans have joined a cooperative to help replace their lost revenue. Maassi and Thangaraj now use their ancestral gifts to find and milk snakes for their venom—which they sell to pharmaceutical companies and hospitals to create lifesaving serums. They are indispensable to a country that is home to half of all snakebite deaths in the world. 

New York-based design label ASHYA (Ashley Cimone and Moya Annece) and Brooklyn-born filmmaker Anthony Prince Leslie explore the Irula’s snake-catching birthright in a film that demonstrates the creatives’ gift for natural storytelling and cultural connectivity.

As well as capturing footage of fearsome vipers and cobras, the filmmakers transport the audience to the center of the Irula community by training a lens on the children, clothing and customs that makes up their day-to-day lives.

Nilā is the second film in a series conceptualized by ASHYA, entitled Ode To Exploration, which sparks conversations around travel and pays homage to indigenous communities and traditions.