Indian documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ has won the Best Documentary Short Film award at the Oscars 2023, making it one of India’s official entries to win the coveted award. The 30-minute film, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, highlights the relationship between a couple, Bomman and Bellie, and an orphaned elephant named Raghu. The couple has dedicated their lives to protect Raghu from poachers and raise him in the Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu, India.
Released on Netflix on December 8, 2022, ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ competed against ‘Haulout’, ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect’, ‘Stranger at the Gate’, and ‘How Do You Measure a Year’ to win the Best Documentary Short Film award.
After the film’s nomination in December 2022, Guneet Monga expressed her delight at the nomination, stating that the team is “beyond ecstatic” that a story about elephants and human beings co-existing in the same space has been nominated at the Oscars.
The RRR team also congratulated the team of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ in a tweet, with the movie’s official account reading, “Congratulations to the entire team of The Elephant Whisperers on winning an Oscar for the best documentary short!! (sic).” Guneet Monga also posted a selfie with the RRR star Jr NTR to mark the occasion.
Meanwhile, in the Best Documentary Feature Film category, Shaunak Sen’s ‘All That Breathes’ was nominated alongside ‘Navalny’, ‘All The Beauty And The Bloodshed’, ‘Fire Of Love’, and ‘A House Of Splinters’, but lost out to ‘Navalny’.
The Oscars this year were hosted by comedian Jimmy Kimmel for the third time and took place at the Dolby Theatres in Los Angeles, US.
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