Producer Guneet Monga is back in contention for an Oscar with ‘The Elephant Whisperers’

Monga recalls how the project came to her and why this is a year that calls for a celebration of diversity

Guneet Monga was on her honeymoon with little access to mobile network and it was only a couple of hours later that she came to know that The Elephant Whisperers had been shortlisted for the Best Documentary Short Film at the Academy Awards. On January 24 this year, when the film received its nomination nod for an Oscar honour, the producer and founder of Sikhya Entertainment posted a heartfelt note on her Instagram account, stating, “Today’s nomination strengthens my faith in stories with heart and people who tirelessly submit themselves to a larger vision”.

 Documentary filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves’ directorial debut, The Elephant Whisperers is about the special bond that develops between a couple, Bomman and Bellie, and the orphan baby elephant named Raghu whose care they are entrusted with. Monga, who has in the past backed Period. End of Sentence, which won the Oscar in the same category in 2019, is elated to be heading to the Academy Awards again with their labour of love. Ahead of the Oscar ceremony to be held on March 12 in Los Angeles, she recalls how the project came to her and why this is a year that calls for a celebration of diversity. Edited excerpts from the conversation.

The Oscar experience is not new for you. Back in 2019, you won the Oscar for the Best Documentary Short for Period. End of Sentence. Do you feel like you’ve aced this now–the marketing, the promotions and the build-up? 

Not at all. I am just grateful to be with Netflix on this journey and on Period. End of Sentence. I feel like it’s a hit jodi. With this platform, I also feel like it’s putting a hoarding on the moon, with the streaming platform’s reach across 190 countries with 223 million viewers. It’s incredible to have such a strong studio and partner backing you. With every film, one experiences the same goosebumps; it is nerve-wracking. I was on my honeymoon last month and there was very little network. It was only 6-8 hours later that we realised The Elephant Whisperers had been shortlisted [for an Academy Award]. Each time, it comes as a surprise and you just feel so grateful. It’s like the universe saying, ‘good work’.

 The Elephant Whisperers is such a heartwarming story and so different from the previous one that won the Oscar honour. What was the deciding factor when you chose to produce it? 

My one-line answer to this is: Who can say no to baby elephants! I was so excited; I had not worked on any film on wildlife prior to this. It was offered to me by Kartiki and Netflix, and they asked if I would produce it. It was greenlit once I came on board. That’s three-and-a-half years of our journey. Also, I have been saying this for many years and this is a testimony of what a producer can do with an early project. It is incredible to be in a position where a studio trusts you to tell a story. I am not a producer who comes from money or Bollywood contacts. I just told one story at a time, and that’s been my journey. It was a moment for me to take the opportunity and do my best, which I did.

This year, apart from The Elephant Whisperers, there is also RRR and All that Breathes from India, contending for different honours at the Oscars. How significant is this validation from the West? Is there a larger victory somewhere in this? 

I think [getting to] the Oscars is every filmmaker’s dream. I’m really happy that this is the first-of-its-kind year where films from India are representing our unique, diverse culture and scope of cinema. There is a Telugu film, there is a Hindi film, and ours is made by a Tamil and a Hindi filmmaker together. If you lean into it, it is really a statement of who we are as a country because we are everything, everywhere, all at once! That’s probably the best description for our country; we have so many stories to tell across languages. When you look at the entire spectrum, from RRR to All That Breathes to The Elephant Whisperers, you realise that this is a year to celebrate diversity.

As a producer, you have backed projects such as The Lunchbox, Masaan and Soorarai Pottru among others in the past. There is a human experience to them, which is backed by great storytelling, writing and nuanced performances. As a producer, what is it that you look for when you receive a script? How much of it is instinct-driven and how much is driven by commerce? 

A lot of it is instinct-driven but commerce also plays a big role in fiction-telling. When I say instinct, it is the story and the filmmaker. I have been on The Elephant Whisperers for three-and-a-half years now. It is very important to note how the experience will be, and can be, over the next three or four years of working on a project. It is a two-step process. Yes, intuition into the story [is key] and secondly, working with the filmmaker, which involves conversations with them, understanding their world view, seeing how much feedback the person is open to. Of course, commerce plays a very big role. The late Yash Chopra once said that a script never fails, the budget fails. It is important to understand that.

Things changed with #MeToo a few years ago and you have also spoken about adopting a woman’s lens in your work. This documentary is directed by a woman and backed by another. Is this project also part of the same lens? How deliberately do you go seeking this lens in the other projects you produce? 

A large part of me coming on board was meeting Kartiki, her purist point of view and her intention behind the project. I am so excited to be on this journey with a first-time female filmmaker, who is also a cameraperson on the film. I will do whatever I can in my capacity to catapult the movement of women in cinema. It is a really integral part of my being and I feel very deeply about it. Even in a film like Soorarai Pottru, the female character is very important to me and there have been conversations that have happened around her. Pagglait was directed by an incredible man [Umesh Bist] but it does take the conversation forward. These stories find me; I become a part of them and there is some magic that happens. I am manifesting more such experiences.

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