New Delhi: Guneet Monga and Kartiki Gonsalves created history as their documentary ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ became the first Indian production to win Oscars in the Best Documentary Short category. While director Kartiki Gonsalves gave her acceptance speech and dedicated her award to her ‘motherland India’, producer Guneet was cut off from the stage with the music as she was about to deliver her speech. Now in a viral video, a TikTok user can be seen saying that the Academy Award didn’t pay any heed to the time when another 'white British' man was giving his acceptance speech a few moments later.
In the video, TikTok user @/iam7evn pointed out that Kartiki took 43 seconds to complete her speech and as Guneet was about to give her speech she was cut off by music and on the other hand in the next award segment when Charles Mackesy and Matthew Freud, who won Best Animated Short, gave their speech that extended 45 seconds they were not cut off.
In the video, he says, “What’s the difference? This was back-to-back! Why is the Indian woman silenced and the white British man gets to say whatever he wants to say?”
The TikToker user also shared Guneet Monga’s speech that she gave post the award ceremony. She said, “Tonight is historic! This is the first Oscar for any Indian production, and two women here won this. I just want to say to everyone watching, the future is audacious and the future is us and the future is here.”
While most of the users criticised the Academy Awards there were a few who believed that it was not intentional and was probably due to LIVE programming. A user commented, “A comment read: "The documentary about Navalny also got tons of time to accept AND his wife got to speak so… yes, it’s very wrong that they cut off this Indian woman’s acceptance speech. Like foul." Another user wrote, "y’all this genuinely pissed me off. it’s more so just sad than anything else. she was standing there with her phone out when the music played over her and her speech was so beautiful.
A few users wrote that cutting off was not intentional and was just due to LIVE programming. “No drama. The Brit clearly tossed to his counterpart, whereas the woman before finished in such a way as to sound complete. I’ve directed lots of live TV. The director thought the woman had wrapped & tossed to the orchestra. Honest mistake but the bell could not be un-rung,” wrote one user. “honestly as someone who’s seen what directing a Live TV broadcast can look like— they probably had someone watching from the box with the music queue’d up, to press play whenever the speaking was over. they screwed up biggg time for sure, but I don’t think it was intentional,” another user commented.
Kartiki in her acceptance speech had said, “I stand here today to speak for the sacred bond between us and our natural world, for the respect of indigenous communities, and empathy towards other living beings we share space with and finally, for coexistence. Thank you to the Academy for recognising our film, highlighting indigenous people and animals.”