WILD YOGI

Filmed on the precipice of Nepal’s 2025 revolution, Wild Yogi follows Tikaram, a farmer born into the lowest caste who renounces society for radical spiritual devotion—only to face economic pressure forcing him from his mountain sanctuary to seek work in Dubai.

Tikaram Yogi, 25, was born into the lowest caste in Nepal and grew up as one of six siblings raised by a single mother. He struggled with mental illness for much of his life, leading to his metamorphosis into a wild yogi. Marked by a resolute pursuit of a natural life, Tikaram sleeps outside on a mountaintop, eats mainly wild fruit, and practices yoga for several hours each day. Tikaram studied relentlessly, becoming an Ayurvedic Doctor in his early twenties. After receiving his degree, he and his brother Gopal moved back to his childhood mountain village where they purchased eleven acres of farmland. The two of them have planted several fields of avocado, plum, fig, pomegranate, and numerous other trees on cascading hills in rural Nepal. As a farmer and spiritual seeker, Tikaram spends his days grounded in the cycles of life, death, and rebirth. Tikaram and Gopal have spent the past two years in intense spiritual Sadhana, adhering to a regimen of fasting, practicing hours of yoga, and social isolation. Wild Yogi is presented as a reflection and journal on a pilgrimage through Nepal, wandering through sporadic moments with locals, capturing rituals never before seen on a cinema camera. It presents a collection of visceral portraits: a shaman sacrifices a chicken to heal a sick newborn; traditional Hindu practice of bodies incinerated on sandalwood pyres; a tantric healer adorned with bones and brass bells chants and beats an animal-hide drum from sunset until sunrise to heal the sick. Rising political tension in Nepal exploded into a youth uprising during the height of summer in 2025, largely fueled by a lack of economic opportunity and corrupt governmental policies. Currently, Tikaram’s own family and his devotion to a natural life have been abruptly fractured by the same strains that caused Nepal’s 2025 uprising. Before the revolution, many of Tikaram’s siblings felt pressured to leave home for Dubai to earn enough money to support their dream of transforming the mountain farmland into a holistic center, leaving Tikaram isolated on the farm for much of 2025. As of 2026, after initial photography and my departure from Nepal, Tikaram has migrated to Dubai due to economic pressures, joining his brothers in hopes of earning enough money to save their land and eventually return home. Ultimately, Wild Yogi grants entry into Tikaram’s transformation through my subjective lens as a filmmaker invited to capture his sacred daily rhythms. Shifting dynamically from the absolute stillness of the mountain farm to the hyper-speed displacement of exile, the film asks a fundamental question: what endures when economic and political systems fail, and spiritual traditions are all that remain?

Project Website: https://wildyogifilm.com

Director, co-editor, cinematographer | Davis Brownell

Producer | Jethro Waters

Producer | Pooja “Lavika” Gupta

Producer | Maya Holcomb

Co-editor | Emile Rizzo-Banks