From night watchman to a successful filmmaker

Bored with his job as a night watchman, Tage Richo turned to filmmaking.
The 42-year-old Arunachalee has directed five feature films to this day in his Apatani dialect and played roles in several local Hindi feature films, including Taro Chatung’s ‘Frontier Students’ in 1993. Richo was bored with his job of a night chowkidar at the state civil secretariat and desperately wanted to break free.
So after three years of service he one day resigned to pursue his dream. “In 1993, I came to know that an audition for an Apatani audio album was being held at Itanagar. So, I came from Ziro to try my luck. I learnt that Taro Chatung was looking for an artist for his upcoming film ‘Frontier student’,” he said. “Instead of attending the audition, I met Chatung. Just after a brief interaction, he agreed to offer me a role in his film.
It was the beginning.” Thereafter, he acted in many short films for Doordrashan Itanagar and also worked as cameraman for the then popular news show ‘News & Views’ under Taro Chatung for more than three years.
In 2003, he directed a comedy film ‘Dolyang Lampii’ in Apatani, and in 2005, he directed ‘Vishwas-gath’ a local Hindi feature film.(PTI)