Edited By: Bohni Bandyopadhyay
Last Updated: March 12, 2023, 13:28 IST
The Elephant Whisperers producer Guneet Monga says India is shining with all it’s diversity and culture at the Oscars this year.
Oscar nominated The Elephant Whisperers’ producer Guneet Monga sends in her best wishes for all the Indian nominations ahead of the 95th Academy Awards.
The 95th Academy Awards is all set to take place on March 12 at the Dolby Theatres in Lose Angeles. The prestigious award ceremony has played a significant role in introducing Indian cinema to the global audience. India has been nominated for three Oscars this year. The song Naatu Naatu from RRR has been is nominated in the Best Original Song category. All That Breathes’ by Shaunak Sen and Aman Mann has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature, while The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, has been nominated for Best Documentary Short Film.
On India bagging multiple nominations this year, The Elephant Whisperers’ producer Guneet Monga shared exclusively with News18, “This time, India is shining with all it’s diversity and culture. There is an epitome of commercial film with RRR representing us, and there’s Elephant Whisperers and All That Breathes. It’s like a true representation with so many languages. For years, whenever I visited the West, I ketp talking about India, and the kind of movies and stories that are being made here in so many languages, it’s like many countries in one country.”
She added, “This is really a good way of explaining our diversity and letting people know who we are. I honestly feel sending one film in Foreign Language category is not doing justice to our country. So we getting nominated is a huge step forward in that conversation. I feel overjoyed on seeing these little victories and big milestones.”
The filmmaker also expressed her joy on bagging a nomination for The Elephant Whisperers. She shared, “I’ve been very grateful for the entire journey. We wanted to reach out to the world and definitely the Oscar nomination is bringing a lot of attention to our work globally. Netflix has been a huge boon. Everything that Kartiki (Gonsalves) wanted to achieve with the movie, she’s got”.
Kartiki also added, “It’s has been a really long journey. It’s been such pleasure to be with her. The whole world is watching and talking about our project.”
Throwing light on her documentary, The Elephant Whisperers, she shared, I think the biggest reason why I felt the need to say this story was because it came from a personal space. I fell in love with the baby elephant Raghu. There have been so many stories about animals being killed and species being endangered, that a need of a positive story where humans and animals can co-exist in peace, was much needed. And I strongly believe, co-existence is the only way to move forward in future. I developed an emotional connect with the elephants. I had been visiting the sanctuary since I was three years old. And what better way than to document it and let the world know about it.”
During the much awaited event, Rihanna will perform Lift Me Up from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Lady Gaga will also rock the stage with her Hold My Hand performance from Top Gun: Maverick. Rahul Sipligunj and Kala Bhairava will sing MM Keeravani’s Naatu Naatu from RRR. The In Memoriam performance will be delivered by Lenny Kravitz.
The Oscar awards will be given out in 23 categories such as directing, acting, music, costume, design, editing, and makeup and styling on March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
