Oscars 2023: Who Is Kartiki Gonsalves? Director of The Elephant Whisperers

At the 95th Academy Awards, Guneet Monga's "The Elephant Whisperers" received an Oscar for Best Documentary Short Film, which was a significant accomplishment for India.

The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartik Gonsalves, makes history as the nation's first Oscar-winning short documentary. The award presentation took place at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles on March 13 (EST).

Who is Kartiki Gonsalves?

Despite having a broad range of work, Kartiki is best categorised as an Indian photographer and filmmaker who specialises in social and natural history documentaries. She made her directing debut with The Elephant Whisperers. She has homes in Mumbai and the Nilgiris. Her whole body of work, regardless of theme, focuses on promoting awareness and enabling conservation.

Kartiki sees her work as a blending of nature, the environment, and wildlife exploration. She had worked on regional traditional painters of the Adivasi and Biel people before beginning a project involving wildcats in the Western Ghats.

Kartiki had mentioned that when she was just three years old, she had visited the sanctuary. But it was an accidental sighting of Bomman with Raghu, an elephant, that piqued her interest in them, and she had the idea to make a movie about it. She recalls being instantly asked over by Bomman and seeing a very uncommon and lovely bond between the two.