Hyderabad Student's Film on Mountaineer Yashwanth Naik Selected for DPIFF 2026

Reo: The Dangerous Peak, a documentary directed by 20-year-old journalism student Shourya Sreekere from St. Joseph’s Degree College in Hyderabad, has been selected for the competition section at the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival (DPIFF) 2026. The film has also been chosen for the non-competitive section of the International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala (IDSFFK) 2026.

The 28-minute English-Hindi documentary chronicles the journey of Telangana mountaineer Yashwanth Naik as he attempts to scale Reo Purgyil, a 6,816-metre peak located in the remote Kinnaur-Tibet region of Himachal Pradesh. During the expedition, Naik and his guides—Rency Thomas, Yogi Raj, and Raina—were stranded for six days due to severe weather conditions.

Filmed in August 2025, the project captures Naik's real conversations and challenges on the mountain. While Shourya could not join the ascent due to health issues, cinematographer Akshat Jain accompanied Naik and the team, managing cameras, drones, and equipment on the mountain. The crew also includes editor Chandan Sai Madineni and music composer Sudha Srinivas P.

According to Shourya, few mountaineers have attempted to scale Reo Purgyil since its first reported ascent by an Indo-Tibetan Border Police team in 1971. Although Naik had previously scaled peaks such as Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Elbrus, the documentary highlights the psychological and physical hurdles of the expedition.

The documentary held its first public screening in Tirupati earlier this year for an audience of filmmakers, mountaineering enthusiasts, and independent cinema supporters.