Monga returns to India after winning Oscar, expresses gratitude

MUMBAI: Producer Guneet Monga is back in India after winning an Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards in Los Angeles. Guneet received a warm welcome at the Mumbai airport during the wee hours of Friday from her friends and fans. She also spoke to reporters stationed outside the airport.

Expressing happiness about the historic win, Guneet told ANI, "We had big competition. There was another film in our category supported by Malala (Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai). Our film worked across countries, ages...the kind of love we are getting from across the world, the film worked its magic." Guneet and director Kartiki Gonsalves scripted history at Oscars 2023 as their project 'The Elephant Whisperers' won the Best Documentary Short Film statuette.

The 41-minute documentary narrates the tale of an orphaned elephant calf, Raghu, put in the care of mahouts, Bomman and Bellie. After the win, Guneet shared her first reaction on Twitter and wrote, "We just win the first ever Oscar for an Indian Production! Two women did this! I am still shivering."

'The Elephant Whisperers' was nominated against 'Haul Out,' 'How Do You Measure A Year?' 'The Martha Mitchell Effect,' and 'Stranger At The Gate'. This is the second Oscar for Guneet. Her first Oscar was in 2019 for the documentary short film, Iranian American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabch's 'Period: End of Sentence', which follows a group of local women at Kathikera village in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh, as they learn how to operate a machine that makes low-cost, biodegradable sanitary pads, which they sell to other women at affordable prices.