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The Rio artful dodger - the story of the englishman who turned a favela upside down

a lost world | Bob moved to the favela in 1981. He fell in love with the view from the top of the hill when he gave his then-maid a lift back home. I ask him what fascinates gringos about staying in a favela.

“Here, tourists get to play snooker with the locals. They chat to everyone. It’s a lost world here, down below ceases to exist. The special effects director of Jurrasic Park, for example, had a suite at the Caesar Palace. One evening he came to The Maze and asked to stay. I said “Sure!” So he left his hotel suite and came to stay at the guesthouse”.

The idea of a lost world haunted me on the way back home in the car. I watched the locals, the woman who was still sat on the pavement and the children playing with kites. Tavares Bastos isn’t your average favela; it’s special. This is due, above all, to a charismatic, creative Englishman, who knew how to make the place his home, bringing some peace back to the area and setting an example for the rest of the world. It’s just a shame that Bob’s ghetto is just one little island in a city
of 8 million inhabitants. On leaving Tavares Bastos, I returned to the really lost world: Rio de Janeiro, where you can’t walk just anywhere at anytime, anyway you like... JD



WHO’S BOB?
A Fine Arts graduate from the Hornsey College of Art (now Middlesex University) in London, Bob Nadkarni began his career as a sculptor on Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. He spent five years in the UK working as a film editor for Miracle and Warner Bros, and then another three years mixing soundtracks for adverts. After this, he went on to spend several years as a war
correspondent in the Middle East, working as a cameraman. Bob arrived in Brasil in 1979 as a cameraman and correspondent for UPITN, being responsible for investigative journalism, writing scripts and directing not only adverts, but also many documentaries. After two years as a correspondent for the BBC in Brasil, Bob set up in the favela Tavares Bastos the production company BASE to serve, as the name suggests, as a base for international productions. His CV includes over 400 documentaries, including Great Railway Journeys, Heroes of the High Frontier and Conquistadors - all for the BBC.