Aishwarya Sridhar first laid eyes on Rana, the young leopard who would become the central character of her recently-released award-winning documentary, Leopard Dynasty: The Rise of Rana, through a Facebook post. Since these pictures of Rana piqued her interest, she decided to spend her Christmas break there in 2022, visiting this small park, India’s first leopard reserve, with her family. She began filming in February 2023, spending over a year in the rock-strewn, semi-arid forests of Rajasthan, patiently tracking this young leopard as he grew stronger and began challenging his father for territory. When Rana went in for a pregnant female, she was sure that it wouldn’t be a successful hunt. “I want to make people connect to and fall in love with wildlife.”Leopard Dynasty: The Rise of Rana is screening on Animal Planet and discovery+