EXCLUSIVE | 'We just got started': Oscar winner Guneet Monga on 'The Elephant Whisperers' historic win at the 95th Academy Awards
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: India created history at the 95th Academy Awards on Sunday as the nation’s official entry ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ won the Best Documentary Short Subject at the star-studded ceremony. The Netflix-backed short documentary became the first Indian film to win an Oscar in the aforementioned category and the third to be nominated after ‘The House That Ananda Built’ in 1969 and ‘An Encounter With Faces’ which were nominated in the same category in 1979 respectively.
While accepting the award, filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga took the stage and gave an impassioned speech at the star-studded event. In an EXCLUSIVE conversation with MEAWW, Gonsalves, and Monga talked about how they feel after winning the coveted trophy. The duo entered the Press Room after their historic win and also talked about various aspects of the documentary to media representatives.
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Monga hopes this win paves the way
When asked how this win will pave the way for aspiring documentary filmmakers in India, producer Guneet Monga said this win is just the beginning of something extraordinary.
“I think largely for Indian cinema, I think we just got started. I mean, it's been a great year, you know. So with ‘All That Breathes’ of last year with Sushmit’s ‘Writing With Fire’. So Indian documentaries and, of course, now with ‘The Elephant Whisperers’; Shaunak, with ‘All That Breathes’, we just got started. It's a good run. Yeah. We share this with all the documentary filmmakers, the aspiring dreams of Indian filmmakers, and I'm sure I hope that this empowers more filmmakers to go tell their stories,” Monga told MEAWW exclusively.
‘The Elephant Whisperers’ edged past other nominees such as ‘Haulout’, ‘How Do You Measure a Year?’, ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect’, and ‘Stranger at the Gate’ to win the prestigious accolade.
What is 'The Elephant Whisperers' all about?
The short film tells the story of an indigenous couple named Bomman and Belli who are entrusted with an orphaned baby elephant named Raghu. They take great pains to ensure that the fragile, injured infant survives and grows to be a healthy juvenile. A strong bond develops between the couple and the elephant. Set in the Mudumalai National Park in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, the documentary also sheds light on the natural beauty of the location and the life of the tribal people.
While talking about the documentary, director Kartiki Gonsalves also noted that she worked for “six years” on this documentary and her passion for the entire subject kept her going. She added, “It's 100% passion. I didn't realize I was going to be six years working on this documentary and that's the only thing that made me get up every single day and do it. It was the passion that I had for the baby elephants, for the entire subjects, for coexistence, and literally putting this message out to the entire world. That's the only thing that kept me going.”
‘The Elephant Whisperers’ is exclusively streaming on Netflix.