WION Exclusive: Oscar winner Guneet Monga on her film The Elephant Whisperer, Indian documentaries and more

*Kartiki Gonsalves's The Elephant Whisperers won Best Documentary Short at Oscars 2023. It is the first Indian film to have won an Oscar in this category. Days ahead of the historic win, the film's producer Guneet Monga spoke exclusively to WION about the film and the grueling process of campaigning at the Oscars, once nominated.

Producer Guneet Monga, whose production house is known for making films like Masaan, The Lunchbox, and Paglait, is not new to the Oscars. Monga was the executive producer of Period. End Of Sentence, which won the Oscar award in 2020 in the Best Documentary Shorts category. Guneet's latest film The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves has been nominated at the 2023 Oscars in the Best Documentary Shorts category.

While the producer was part of the team that won the Oscar in 2020 for Period. End Of Sentence, Guneet states that she never won the Oscar. "I was the executive producer. My film won but I did not win an Oscar," Guneet clarified to WION in a free-wheeling conversation recently.

The Elephant Whisperer premiered in November 2022 at DOC NYC Film Festival, a film festival for documentaries in the United States. It is now streaming on Netflix and is about the bond that develops between a couple and an orphaned baby elephant, Raghu, whom they foster at the Mudumalai National Park in South India.

Guneet Monga, who has been in Los Angeles for the past few weeks campaigning for her film spoke to WION at length about what made her say yes to The Elephant Whisperer and why it is so difficult for Indian films to get noticed at Oscars and earn a nomination.

Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Q: Congratulations on the nomination, Guneet. I believe you have been campaigning for The Elephant Whisperer in LA for a while. How has been the process?

A: The campaign is intense. This is the first time I am a nominee and if we win, the golden statue will be in my name and we will bring that to India. But for that, we will have to wait till March 12. Right now I am very excited to be here. The process is just about putting your film out there. We are working closely with the Netflix team and it's been amazing. The film is live in 90 countries thanks to the OTT platform and people have had beautiful reactions. There are art mails, fan arts coming to us from world wide. It's very sweet that love is coming to our work. So I think the process is to put the film out to more and more people so that they know about it and talk about it and share it.

The voters are largely in America but there are also voters across Europe, Asia, Africa, and Canada. You have to put your film out there and there are so many films doing the same campaigning in different categories. every film is doing the same thing.

Q: How did you come on board for The Elephant Whisperer?

A: It was Kartiki Gonsalves who came to me with the film. She is a first-time director, has been a wildlife photographer and took to video to tell this story. She lives in Ooty the Mudumalai National Park is just 30 minutes from her place and this is a story she found. She first made friends with Raghu(the Elephant) and shot for a year. She then made a little promo and showed it to me. I was blown away by her work and her cinematography - she is also a camerawoman. I was blown away by her work and her passion for the story and for Raghu.

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So that's how it happened and I thought I would do everything in my power to support this project. Kartiki has been associated to the project for 5 years and I have been with it for three and a half years. And Netflix came on board the project eventually and we made the movie happen.

Q: How much time did it take to shoot the film?

It took a while because we had 450 hours of footage with us, lots of shots of the jungle. Its a venerated documentary takes time to unfold cause real life is happening. So that's been our journey on it, Kartiki found this story, credit of that goes to her and I was overjoyed to support a woman director.

Q: This year Shaunak Sen's All That Breathes and your film The Elephant Whisperer are both nominated at the Oscars. Do you feel Indian documentaries do not get a good platform in India?

A: It's not that Indian documentaries have been neglected in India. We are an equity-driven industry. For 100 years we have been known for our fiction stories. Non-fiction stories need a lot of time and public support and public funding which does not exist here in India. Such a system does not exist in India and so documentary filmmakers look for grants across the world. It's a long process. It's very tough to be a documentary filmmaker and that's why there are far and few. But it's amazing that our country has documentary filmmakers like Shirley Abraham, Rintu Thomas, Anand Patwardhan, Kartiki Gonsalves. It is definitely a great time for Indian documentaries and I hope they get more support for their work so that the films they make come through easily.

Q: Looking at your film repertoire, you seem to always back the unconventional stories. Isn't it a big risk and has it been a conscious decision to pick such films?

A: After 15 years of doing what I do, I also know my own taste. Risk hai to Ishq hai. With the emergence of OTT platforms, it's a good time for documentary filmmakers, for independent filmmakers. People are now consuming documentaries - as a format its new to India.

Q: The Elephant Whisperer has the backing of Netflix. Do you think having it on board helped your film?

A: Absolutely! With Netflix on board, I felt we put a hoarding on the Moon. There are incredible! Got to learn so much.

Q: India makes so many good films. Why is it so difficult for our films to get nominated at the Oscars?

A: We get to choose one film from a vast country like India. So many films to choose from for the best film category and the country can send only one. I felt The Lunchbox had such a strong chance but it was never sent officially from here. One has to look at the popularity of the film in America, it also means festival runs, and one has to also tap into American distribution. Unless we tap into that, we won't be able to spend much of our stuff tothe Oscars. Distribution is key. Without it, we are thinking in isolation. There is a disconnect between the selection committee and how they think here.

300 plus films come in the feature film category at the Oscars this year. Which is why distribution is important. Netflix is running the campaign for us. Lagaan had Sony picture classic to back it, and so did The Lunchbox and they know how to run for the awards.

Q: The Elephant Whisperer is produced by a woman and directed by a woman. Do you feel women directors still face challenges in getting their projects bankrolled?

There are less than 5% women filmmakers making films in India. I feel it's my mission to be part of projects made by women filmmakers. As a producer whatever I can do in my lifetime, I will do. Was overjoyed to be part of Kartiki's journey when she reached out and I hope I can add value to more such projects made by women.