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ADV NewsAward-Winning Adventure Motorcycle Filmmaker Passes Away

Award-Winning Adventure Motorcycle Filmmaker Passes Away

The Adventure Riding world loses one of its most influential storytellers.

Published on 05.28.2020

The adventure riding world has lost one of its great influencers, Mumbai-based filmmaker Gaurav Jani, who passed on May 24th from organ failure due to an infection, said not to be related to Covid-19.

Famous for his self-made films about riding in remote areas of the Himalayas, Jani inspired a generation of adventure riders to self-document their own travels. 

His first film, the award-winning and internationally acclaimed, Riding Solo To The Top Of The World, was released in 2006, around the same time the Long Way Round series lit up the imaginations of would-be adventurers. The difference was, Jani – like any other real-world adventure rider – didn’t have a massive crew and budget. 


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In fact, it was the no-frills, real-world starkness that made his films so compelling. Here was a guy headed into the unknown on a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 that seemed to gasp for breath beneath a mountain of heavy camera equipment. What could possibly go wrong? 

The film provides a nice hit of gritty adventure, but even more importantly, it reminds us how much we are able explore our inner selves as we move through unknown, extremely challenging situations. Jani, who left the fashion industry for life as a moto-documentarian, weaves it all together with compelling visual artistry. 

His second acclaimed film, One Crazy Ride, follows Jani and four cohorts as they attempt to prove an uncharted route through the remote and foreboding area of the Himalayas found in Arunachal Pradesh, the northeastern-most state of India. This film was also unscripted and unplanned, just five guys navigating dangerous and unpredictable situations on adventure bikes, finding extraordinary beauty in nature while testing their own limitations, and the strength of their friendships. 

Those friends, Nicolitta Pereira, Vinod Panicker, Sanjeev Sharma, Gursaurabh Singh Toor were all members of the 60kph Motorcycle Travel Club of India, which Jani founded to further extend the joys of adventure riding. “The road and the ride teaches the rider a lot of things and the best way to realize it consciously is to share it with others,” explains the club’s website in regard to its purpose. 

The 60kph Club, Jani’s legacy, also wants you to know its name doesn’t mean members never ride fast, but rather that “biking in India is not about speed or movement but rather, stillness. One can understand this only when he rides on the small lonely stretches absorbing the ever changing culture, people and customs.”

A true trailblazer in the world of DIY adventure storytelling, Gaurav Jani made us see that our own stories were also interesting and worth documenting. So let’s honor his loss making the most of our adventure rides to come. 

Author: Jamie Elvidge

Jamie has been a motorcycle journalist for more than 30 years, testing the entire range of bikes for the major print magazines and specializing in adventure-travel related stories. To date she’s written and supplied photography for articles describing what it’s like to ride in all 50 states and 43 foreign countries, receiving two Lowell Thomas Society of American Travel Writer’s Awards along the way. Her most-challenging adventure yet has been riding in the 2018 GS Trophy in Mongolia as Team AusAmerica’s embedded journalist.

Author: Jamie Elvidge
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Dave Vitagliano
Dave Vitagliano
June 23, 2020 5:29 pm

Wow, great story Jamie. That’s so sad but I will be looking up his films.

John Deikis
John Deikis
July 24, 2020 4:35 pm

Wow! Tried to buy or download the films but they do not appear to be available in the U.S. 🙁
A real rider and a real adventurer. Charley and Ewan, are you listening?

Ismail ibrahim
Ismail ibrahim
June 24, 2021 12:40 pm
Reply to  John Deikis

Go to youtube. Type the title of the film.

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