‘The Elephant Whisperers’ wins Oscar: Tourists visit Tamil Nadu to see baby elephant ‘Raghu’

Tamil Nadu: A day after the Indian documentary film ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ won an Oscar in the ‘best documentary short film’ category, a large number of tourists thronged Mudumalai Theppakadu elephant camp to witness the baby elephant ‘Raghu’ from the documentary. The film’s plot revolves around a family who adopts two orphaned baby elephants in Tamil Nadu’s Mudumalai Tiger Reserve. ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ wins Oscar: Tourists visit Tamil Nadu to see ‘Raghu’.

A tourist said that seeing the elephants is “exciting”. “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,” the tourist said, reported.

Another foreign tourist said, “I am from London, we visited here and got to know that two baby elephants from here won an Oscar last night. It is nice to see them, and I really enjoyed seeing them. Elephants are my favourite animal. I am very lucky to see them today.”

Directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, the Oscar-winning documentary competed against ‘Haul Out,’ ‘How Do You Measure A Year?’ ‘The Martha Mitchell Effect,’ and ‘Stranger At The Gate’. Gonsalves and producer Guneet Monga stepped up to collect the golden statuette at the 95th Academy Awards.

In her winning speech, the director of the documentary thanked the academy for “recognizing the film and highlighting indigenous people and animals.”

“I stand here today to speak on the sacred bond between us and our natural world. For the respect of indigenous communities. For entities towards other living beings, we share our space with. And finally for co-existence. 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,” she said.

Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated the entire team of the Tamil documentary on Twitter. “Congratulations to @EarthSpectrum, @guneetm and the entire team of ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ for this honour. Their work wonderfully highlights the importance of sustainable development and living in harmony with nature,” he tweeted.

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