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Director Kartiki Gonsalves: ‘I have never seen a happier elephant’
Updated On: 12 August, 2024 10:13 AM IST | Mumbai | Mitali Parekh
Debutant director Kartiki Gonsalves, whose movie has been nominated in the Best Short Documentary Film category at the Oscars, tells us about the serendipity that led to chronicling of the extraordinary life of an elephant and his caretaker
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Kartiki Gonsalves grew up in Ootacamund and the forests around are home to her. She began shooting the film, The Elephant Whisperers, in 2017 after spotting Raghu and Bomman walking together for the evening bath
In 2017, Kartiki Gonsalves was on her way from Bengaluru, where she was living at the time, to Ooty, her home. On the side of the road, she saw a man walking with a young elephant calf. “They were heading for their evening bath,” says Gonsalves over a video call from Seattle. “I had never seen a calf so young. It looked up at the man often, and the man looked at him with obvious fatherly love. They were headed down to the water for the elephant’s evening bath, and I got off the car and followed them. Their bond was so obvious and deep. The man talked to the calf all the while, and the calf would wrap his trunk around the man’s arm and was clearly attached to him.” That was Bomman and Raghu. The movie, Elephant Whisperers, that 36-year-old Gonsalves made on their relationship, has been nominated in the Best Documentary Short Film category at the 2023 Oscars.
Kartiki shot the pair over five years, in two schedules. The first one was shot in 2017 on a DSLR and her phone, and the rushes shown to Netflix which brought Guneet Mongia onboard as producer. Then came the process of applying for permissions to shoot in the oldest elephant camp in Asia, Theppakadu, within the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. With Gonsalves based in Ooty, it was only a 30-minute drive. Through Netflix, the documentary has reached 190 countries.
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