Swag on a skateboard 

Netflix movie Skater Girl may have been shot in a village in Rajasthan, but the skateboarding feature shares a close connection with Bengaluru. A Bengaluru-based skateboarder coached the protagonist Prerna (played by debutante Rachel Saanchita Gupta), a teenager who struggles to pursue her passion for skateboarding.

The skatepark Prerna and her friends practise in, was built by two Bengaluru-based ventures - 100 Ramps Skatepark Construction Company and Holystoked Collective. Prominent names from the city’s thriving skateboarding scene also play cameo roles as themselves. Kevin Anish Christopher, a Kerala-born and Bengalurubred skateboarder, was first approached for the construction of the skatepark in Rajasthan in 2018.

When director Manjari Makijany and producers Vinati Makijany and Emmanuel Pappas learned that 28-year-old Christopher is also a skateboarding coach, they asked him to teach the protagonists and 100+ kids from around the village. He was also one of the skate camera operators for the film. Like her character Prerna, Rachel hadn’t ever stepped on a board.

The first lesson, of course, was learning how to fall. “You ought to fall while skateboarding and the true challenge is to get back up and try again. It’s important to recognise where one falters while attempting a trick and keeping at it is key,” says Christopher, who formed WeSkateCo to empower children through sports.

Building the skatepark during the monsoon was another challenge, says Abhishek, one of the founders of Holystoked Collective and a partner at 100 Ramps, who designed the film’s skatepark. “We were looking forward to a theatrical release but that was not possible due to the pandemic. None the less, it was great to see the film and the skatepark on Netflix,” says Abhishek.

When Holystoked was founded in 2010, Abhishek knew all the skaters in India given that only so few existed. Today, that number lies in thousands, with communities existing in smaller cities like Varanasi, Kovalam and Kannur. “But the perception of those who aren’t familiar with skateboarding is the same.

Maybe this film can help change that,” he adds. The film also features Bengalurean skaters in cameo roles, where they play themselves. Abhishek, plays a skateboarder and construction crew mate, whereas Darius Cyrus Bharucha, founder of 100 Ramps, does the same, while also judging the fictional competition.

Two others, 17-year-old Mahin Ivan Tandon, who took part in the International Skateboarding Open in 2019, and 27-year-old Atita Verghese, one of the first Indian female skateboarders, also appear in cameos. Verghese recalls that she knew only two other girls who, like her, were learning to skateboard in 2012. Now, the number is definitely more heartening, but still a huge gender gap still exists in the sport. “But I do hope this film can change that. And like Prerna, maybe more girls can find the inspiration to hop on board too,” she says.