Noida mountaineer Arjun Vajpai’s documentary on the silver screen

"I climb the mountains outside to be able to climb the mountains within,” declares Noida-based mountaineer Arjun Vajpai in the documentary film, 'The Mountain Within'. The 51-minute documentary, which released yesterday, chronicles Arjun’s journey over almost a decade - from 2010 - when he became the youngest Indian to summit Mt Everest at the age of 16 - to 2019, when he attempts to scale 14 of the world’s over-8000m peaks, with six already done. The film has been released in six cities - Noida, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh. “The film presents the journey of Arjun in 2010 to Arjun in 2018. After having scaled the Kanchenjunga, the stories that have never been told to people and a footage that has never been shared before. The challenges, the obstacles and what exactly goes on in the head of an Indian mountaineer - it is all very beautifully captured in the documentary,” says the 25-year-old.


He adds that the ideology behind making the film is to inspire youngsters to overcome any hurdle they may be facing in their life. “The film is for the younger people of India and to inspire them to find their ‘Everest’ in life and climb it. For me, that Everest is the real Mt Everest,” says Vajpai.
Vajpai says that the documentary shows real-life action, unlike in films. “This documentary is a breather from all the made-up action we see in commercial films, as what you see here is real. No one is acting in the film and it is real - be it someone falling, getting hurt or dying. It is the real experience of being in the mountains and those who love nature and adventure will enjoy it,” says the mountaineer.
A still from 'The Mountain Within'

The footage of the film has been collected from various sources over 2010 to 2018. Vajpai says that even as the film follows him from a 16-year-old to a 25-year-old, one can notice the development in the camera quality over the years. “The footage has been gathered over the past 11 8,000-metre expeditions that we have done. After the idea to make the documentary was finalized, I was accompanied with an Italian cameraperson and photographer Alex D’emilia who specializes in filming in extreme conditions. It is a lot of effort and very challenging to film in such high altitudes in sub-zero temperatures,” says Vajpai, who is a resident of Sector 51.
Some of the people who feature in the documentary include Vajpai’s parents Sanjiv and Priya Vajpai, his personal trainer, some of his close friends who are also mountaineers and his personal physical trainer, who talk about Vajpai’s journey.
Vajpai adds that the film has garnered a lot of attention over social media and hopes it does well in theatres too. “I feel that it is a film which also gives a boost to adventure tourism and sports as it is a big market in India today. Youngsters have the fire in them to go and explore, and I hope the film resonates with that thought,” he says.