Guneet Monga

Some Lesser Known Facts About Guneet Monga

• Guneet Monga is an Indian film producer. She is the co-founder of Sikha Entertainment (a boutique film production house), and Indian Rising Women (a cinema collective). She came to the limelight in March 2023 after she received an Oscar for producing a 2022 documentary film The Elephant Whisperers.

• She started her career as an intern for the French-German film “Valley of Flowers” in 2004. ^[3]Mint

• In 2006, Monga joined Sepia Entertainment as a full-time production coordinator and worked for the English language film “Partition” (2007). The film was nominated for the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography in 2008.

• In April 2008, she founded her own production house, Sikhya Entertainment, in partnership with Achin Jain, a film producer. The production house worked on several notable films including “That Girl in Yellow Boots” (2011), “The Lunchbox” (2013), “Peddlers” (2013), “Masaan” (2015), “Haraamkhor” (2015), “Soorarai Pottru” (2020), “Pagglait” (2021), and “Kathal” (2023).

• Her film “The Lunchbox” (2013) was a co-production between India, France, Germany, and the USA, and her film “Monsoon Shootout” (2013) was a co-production between India, the Netherlands, and the UK. In 2013, both films were selected for International Critics’ Week and a midnight screening at the ‘Cannes Film Festival 2013.’

• Monga worked as a Supervising Producer at Balaji Motion Pictures Pvt Ltd for almost one year, and while working on the film “Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai” (2010) in 2009, she met Anurag Kashyap following which she joined the Anurag Kashyap Films Pvt. Ltd. (AKFPL). She was the CEO at AKFPL and worked on the films like Gangs of Wasseypur, Part I & II (2012), Trishna (2011), Shaitan (2011), Michael (2011), and Aiyya (2012).

• She produced the 2022 Short Documentary film The Elephant Whisperers for which she received an Oscar in 2023. The film, which premiered on Netflix on 8 December 2022, shows the relationship shared by two mahouts named Bomman and Bellie with their elephants Raghu and Bommi (aka Ammu).

  

• Guneet Monga is a BAFTA nominee and among the first producers from India to be inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

• Monga faced age and gender discrimination in the initial days of her career. According to her, people often expected producers to be older males, and she believed that no one would accept her as a film producer at a young age; therefore, she used to dye her hair grey and wear sarees to her meetings to look older. While talking about this in an interview, she said,
  

  Otherwise, how would a twenty-six-year-old be taken seriously? I just had to fake it—that I know my shit.’ ^[4]Scroll

• Before becoming an established film producer, Monga worked as a DJ, an insurance agent, a sales agent for Laughing Cow cheese, an event planner, a rally car driver, and a property saleswoman.