First ever Oscar for Indian production: Guneet Monga pens note as she bags Oscar for 'The Elephant Whisperers'

Oscars morning for India has begun with a bang. Producer Guneet Monga's documentary 'The Elephant Whispers' bagged the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film. For the unversed, the film was competing against Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year?, The Martha Mitchell Effect and Stranger At The Gate. Director Gonzalves dedicated the award to ‘my motherland, India. 

Expressing her gratitude on the same producer Guneet Monga took to her social media account and penned a lovely note. She wrote, "Tonight is historic as this is the first ever Oscar for an Indian production....India’s Glory with 2 women. Thank you Mom Dad Guruji Shukrana 🙏🏾 To my Co-Producer Achin Jain, Team Sikhya, Netlflix, Aloke, Sarafina, WME Bash Sanjana. My lovely Husband Sunny. Happy 3 months anniversary baby! Kartiki for bringing & weaving this story. To all the women watching….The future is audacious and the future is here.Let’s go! Jai hind."

Talking about the same Guneet said,"This is an incredibly powerful and historical moment. We as two women from India, stood on that global stage making this historical win. I’m so proud of this film, this moment and proud of my amazing team at Sikhya Entertainment, that an independent production house from India has made the history to be the first ever Indian film by an Indian production to win an Oscar. My heart is racing with all the joy, love, excitement in the moment. I’m so grateful to Kartiki, the wonderful visionary that she is. Netflix gave us the biggest stage in the world and supported us n believed in us all the way. Today I can say, the future for Indian cinema is audacious, the future is here and not to forget the future is truly female!”

Produced by Achin Jain and Guneet Monga, and directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the 41-minute short follows the family from Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve who end up adopting two orphan baby elephants. What was special about this India short was that it happened to be filmmaker Gonsalves’ directorial debut.