Surabhi Khosla

The gut-wrenching film documents the slaughter and trade of whale sharks on the Western coast of India. And Pandey is the first Indian film-maker ever to focus on a large marine species.

"The film which was shot under extreme conditions took almost three years to complete and aims towards creating policies to support a ban on the killing and trade of Whale Sharks in India as well as finding sustainable alternatives for the fishermen," says Pandey.

The Earth Matters Foundation created for the preservation of wildlife in their natural habitat has already begun an awareness campaign to save the Whale Shark. The foundation is planning to use Shores of Silence to put an end to this slaughter.

Pandey says that as a 10 year old boy he had sailed from Africa to India by ship and throughout the voyage he was mesmerised by huge creatures that swam alongside the ship.

"Now nearly 40 years later, while shooting a film on coastal India in Gujarat, the memory of those creatures urged me to look for them again. I travelled all along the Gujarat coast asking fishermen if they knew of the badi machhli - the Whale Shark. But what Pandey and his crew saw made them shrink in horror. And what started as a feel-good film on these gentle giants turned out to be a tale of blood and gore.

The triumph of rediscovering these huge creatures in Indian waters was immediately eroded by the tragedy which they witnessed on shore. The horrified crew watched fishermen haul in the sharks and slaughter them mercilessly.

Hundreds of these sea giants are butchered on the shores of Western India every year. There is a great demand for shark meat and fins in South East Asia. The oil from their livers is used to waterproof boats.