2020: 2023: Guneet Monga responds to Indian movie The Elephant Whisperers winning the Oscar Award for Best Documentary Short

Awards in 2023: The documentary short The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year?, and the other film, Stranger at the Gate and the Martha Mitchell Effect.

At the 95th Academy Awards, Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga's Netflix documentary short The Elephant Whisperers won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. Haulout, How Do You Measure a Year?, and the other film, Stranger at the Gate and the Martha Mitchell Effect. "My motherland, India," the award was dedicated by director Gonzalves. Guneet, in an Instagram post, expressed, "This evening is notable as this is the very first Oscar for an Indian creation… "

Delivered by Achin Jain and Guneet Monga, and coordinated by Kartiki Gonsalves, the 41-minute short follows the family from Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai Tiger Save who wind up embracing two vagrant child elephants. The fact that this India short was directed by Gonsalves for the first time made it unique. Gonsalves had previously discussed the making of the short with The Indian Express, stating, "I followed Raghu's story for five years, and had about 450 hours of footage." There are a lot of Raghu baths there, and he spends a lot of time there eating or playing. However, scenes like the one in which Bellie instructs Ammu to sit next to her require patience when dealing with something like this. These are private occasions that cannot be planned.

"I've got a lot of feedback saying that it portrays the dignity of both the magnificent elephants and the Indigenous people who've lived with them and shared with them for centuries," Kartiki told Deadline about the love she had received since the short film's release.

At this year's Oscars, India had received three Oscar nominations: for Best Original Song (RRR's "Naatu Naatu"), Best Documentary Feature Film (Shaunak Sen's "All That Breathes"), and Best Documentary Short (Kartiki Gonsalves' "The Elephant Whisperers").

Netflix is currently streaming The Elephant Whisperers.