EXCLUSIVE: Guneet Monga reveals why India has not won an Oscar in the Feature Films category

The 96th Oscars are just about the corner. The grand ceremony will take place on March 10 in the US. Hence, it will be start in the wee hours of the morning in India on Monday March 11. Like every year, there is keen excitement among movie fans worldwide on who all would walk away with the coveted trophy this year.

 

EXCLUSIVE: Guneet Monga reveals why India has not won an Oscar in the Feature Films category

 

Just as we are reaching the big night, Bollywood Hungama got talking with producer Guneet Monga Kapoor, who made India proud last year at the Oscars after her film The Elephant Whisperers won the trophy for Best Documentary Short. This was her second Oscar after Period. End Of Sentence won the same award in 2018, in which she served as an Executive Producer.

 

When asked whether she is now getting used to being referred to as the “Oscar winning producer”, Monga said, “Yes, it feels surreal, beautiful, magical and it feels like a year of magic and miracles that I have had. After the Oscars, doing a film like KILL, then representing it in Toronto, it feels nice overall.”

 

There have been more than a handful of Indians who have won an Oscar over the decades. But India has never won in the Feature film category. Explaining what we need to do for that to happen, Monga said, “Firstly, it is very important that we should choose those films that can get American distribution. A lot of Indian films that go to these festivals in Venice, Toronto, Berlin, Busan, etc, every year should get due coverage. Once a film wins at these festivals, they create a global buzz. The next step is that those films should get a mainstream American distribution, who will do the film’s sales and marketing. So that will become the most invested party in that film winning the Oscar.”

 

She added, “Otherwise, to create a campaign on your own is very difficult. It’s like doing a lot of press in LA and you only get 4-5 weeks to do it if you haven’t gone to any festival before. So that is very difficult if you don’t have an American distributor. And that’s the reason why maybe we haven’t been able to win in the Feature Film category. We have won in Short Films category because there is no such process of choosing.”

 

Guneet Monga also believes that this should be the protocol for winning the Feature film award. “If we only wish to do some screenings over there, we are anyways doing that. For example, Lagaan was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and it went so far ahead. Likewise, for The Elephant Whisperers, there was Netflix. Netflix did a lot of hard work with us and we did our campaign with them. We had an American distributor and that’s why we were able to go so ahead.”

 

Monga agreed that there is altogether different challenge for the makers after their film gets selected for the Oscars. “It is stressful and challenging and you have to charter a new world and territory,” she said.

 

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: “In KILL, out of 105 minutes, there’s 95 minutes of action,” reveals Guneet Monga Kapoor

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