As 'The Elephant Whisperers' won the Oscar for the Best Documentary Short Film at the 95th Academy Awards, tourists thronged Mudumalai Theppakadu elephant camp to catch a glimpse of the baby elephant whose story has been narrated in the film.
The documentary was up against other short films like 'Haul Out,' 'How Do You Measure A Year?' 'The Martha Mitchell Effect,' and 'Stranger At The Gate'.
'The Elephant Whisperers' plot revolves around a family, which adopts two orphan baby elephants in Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and look after them like their very own.
Tourists throng Mudumalai elephant camp
The Mudumalai Theppakadu elephant camp has been witnessing a huge crowd ever since the 'The Elephant Whisperers' Oscar win.
"It is such a great moment. It's a pleasure to be here. The elephant is my favourite animal and the fact that the film won an Oscar does make me delighted and excited," said a tourist, according to ANI.
Tourists have been clicking pictures of the elephants, who have now become the stars of the wildlife reserve as well as the country as a whole.
The Elephant Whisperers' Oscar win
As 'The Elephant Whisperers' was announced as the winner under the Best Documentary Short Film category, director Kartiki Gonsalves, and producer Guneet Monga stepped up on the stage to collect the coveted golden statuette at the 95th Academy Awards.
In her winning speech, Gonsalves dedicated the Oscar to her "motherland India" and said, "I stand here today to speak on the sacred bond between us and our natural world. For the respect of indigenous communities. For entity towards other living beings, we share our space with. And finally for co-existence. Thank you to the academy for recognizing our film highlighting indigenous people and animals. To Netflix for believing in the power of this film. To Guneet my Producer and my entire team and finally, to my mother father and sister who are up there somewhere, you're the centre of my universe. To my motherland India."
This is not the first film involving Guneet Monga that won an Oscar. In 2019, Monga's documentary 'Period. End of Sentence' bagged an Oscar in the 'Documentary Short Subject' category.
