Oscars 2023 | Belly, who plays the main character of The Elephant Whisperers, said – Elephants are like our children

Udhagamandalam (Tamil Nadu). The Elephant Whisperers, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves and produced by Guneet Monga, has won the Best Documentary Short Subject award at the 95th Academy Awards. The other four nominees in the category are Hallout, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Stranger at the Gate, and How Do You Measure a Year? The Elephant Whispers is the first Indian film to win an Oscar in this category and the third film to be nominated after The House That Anand Built and An Encounter with Faces which competed for Best Documentary Short in 1969 and 1979 respectively. Elephant Whispers, set in Mudumalai National Park, is the story of Bomman and Belli, an orphaned elephant calf named Raghu in the care of an indigenous couple. The documentary not only celebrates the bond that develops between them but also the natural beauty that surrounds them. Elephant Whispers was released on Netflix in December 2022.

On Indian documentary The Elephant Whispers winning the Oscar in the Best Documentary Short Subject category at the 95th Academy Awards, Belly, who plays the female lead in the documentary, said, “I don’t know about the Oscars. But I love being the valarappu thai (foster mother) of helpless young elephants. “Elephants are like our children, we see this as a service to the destitute elephants who have lost their mothers,” he said. She said she didn’t know about the award but was excited about the wishes she has been receiving. Belli said, I have raised many such baby elephants like my own children, taking care of them like a foster mother, especially the baby elephants who lose their mother in the wild. Belli, who hails from a mahout family, further said, “It (serving elephants) is in our blood as our forefathers were also doing the same thing as told by our grandmothers.

On the documentary winning the Oscar, Bailey said, “I don’t know about the award. But I am very happy and excited because I am getting a lot of congratulations. When asked about her hero and husband Bowman in the documentary, she said that he had gone to Salem to fetch an elephant that had some serious problems and was eager to serve him. The couple work as mahouts at Theppakkadu Elephant Camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Nilgiris district and take care of the elephant cubs. The Elephant Whispers, directed by Karthick Gonsalves, depicts the unbreakable bond between Raghu and Amu, two orphaned baby elephants and their caretakers Boman and Belli. Meanwhile, Alwas, secretary of the Nilgiri Tribal Welfare Association, termed the award as a recognition of the traditional profession of the tribals.