Hope win paves way for more local documentaries, says Kartiki Gonsalves

Gonsalves was speaking at the first press conference in Mumbai on Thursday after The Elephant Whisperers’ big win at the Academy Awards earlier this month. The event was also attended by the real heroes of the film – Bomman and Bellie, a tribal couple who live on the periphery of Mudumalai National Park of Tamil Nadu. Hailing from the Kattunayakan tribe, the earliest known inhabitants of the Western Ghats who consider themselves protectors of the forest, they can be seen raising orphaned baby elephants Raghu and Ammu as their own children.

A still from Oscar-nominated documentary The Elephant Whisperers.

When asked how can we, as urban citizens, achieve this kind of harmony with wildlife, Bomman said, “My grandfather taught my father, he taught me and, I will teach the next generation. That’s all one needs to do. If you love animals, you must teach your children and they must teach theirs.”

The film sees his wife Bellie, who lost her first husband to a wild animal, being scared of the forest. But she was entrusted with taking care of Raghu and in the process, not only did she overcome her fear but also found motherly affection, filling the void that was created when she lost her daughter. “I want to thank Kartiki for calling me the mother of Raghu and Ammu,” she said in Tamil, adding, “I myself didn’t believe that I could be a mother to two thriving elephants and now I can’t get enough. Even though I am here, I feel my babies back home must be longing for their mother, and I want to go back to them.”