Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin felicitated filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves in Chennai on Tuesday after she won the Oscar Award for Best Documentary Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards for her short The Elephant Whisperers last week. CM Stalin handed out a cheque for ₹ 1 crore, while presenting her with a shawl and a memento. The Chief Minister also conferred and awarded ₹1 lakh each to Bomman and Bellie, the mahouts who were featured in the documentary. Furthermore, he has announced that funds will be allocated for the construction of houses for all the mahouts and cavadis in the elephant camps in Mudumalai and Anamalai.
Produced by Guneet Monga and Achin Jain under the Sikhya Entertainment banner, The Elephant Whisperers directed by Kartiki Gonsalves became the first ever Indian production to win an Academy Award. The Netflix documentary emerged triumphant in the Best Documentary Short Film category coming on top of the other nominees among which included Haulout, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger At The Gate, and How Do You Measure A Year? The Elephant Whisperers is also the third Indian short documentary film to be nominated after The House That Ananda Built (1969) and An Encounter With Faces (1979), respectively.
During her acceptance speech at the 95th Academy Awards, Kartiki Gonsalves said, "I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world, for the respect of indigenous communities, and empathy towards other living beings we share space with and finally, for coexistence. Thank you to the Academy for recognising our film, and highlighting indigenous people and animals. To Netflix for believing in the power of this. To Bomman and Belli for sharing their sacred tribal wisdom. To Guneet, my producer. To my entire team and finally, to my mother, father and sister who are up there somewhere and you are the centre of my universe, to my motherland India."