Not one, but two Oscars. How proud are you of Guneet Monga?
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Short filmTranscript
00:00This is India's first ever film, To Win.
00:03And it's two women from a country of 1.4 billion
00:10and this is India's first production, To Win.
00:13What I'm trying to say here is don't wait for anybody.
00:15Just get started.
00:16There's nobody here to give you permission.
00:18You don't need a seat on the table.
00:20Create your own table and sit on it.
00:30I think I was 23 years old.
00:56I moved to Bombay with money from my neighbor
01:00and decided to just meet so many people.
01:04I remember how it started was that my neighbor told me
01:06that they wanted to make a studio
01:09and make like films of cute babies for their parents,
01:13like commissioned work.
01:14And I was like, okay, what is your budget for the studio?
01:17And I remember him saying 50 lakhs.
01:19I was like, why don't you give me 50 lakhs?
01:21I will go to Bombay and make a feature film.
01:24And I literally moved to Bombay.
01:27And just anybody and everybody I knew, I was like,
01:33I have 50 lakhs.
01:34Do you have a story?
01:36I would love to be a producer.
01:38So we had set up a company and done the paperwork
01:41and made the first film in 2006, which released in 2007.
01:46It was a children's film, children's cricket film.
01:57I just could not handle the situation
02:01where cinemas were just like, take your movie back
02:03because nobody talks about cricket right now.
02:06India lost the World Cup.
02:07They were like, give me an old picture.
02:08We won't use this now.
02:13So I ended up actually going to Delhi
02:15and going to my school, Blue Wells.
02:17And I asked my principal if she would get all the kids
02:21for 50 rupees and I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
02:24I asked her if she would get all the kids for 50 rupees
02:27and see the film.
02:28I ended up booking a cinema near our school,
02:31which was Sapna Cinema Hall and Morning Show,
02:3550 rupees per kid.
02:37I booked the whole cinema in 10,000 rupees.
02:39It was a thousand seater.
02:41And 50 rupees per kid, 50,000 show,
02:4310,000 to the theater owner, 40,000 was mine.
02:47And the kids loved the film.
02:55Largely for Indian cinema, I think we just got started.
02:58I mean, it's been a great year, you know?
03:00So with all that breeze with last year,
03:02Rintu and Sushmit writing with fire.
03:07So Indian documentaries and of course now
03:08with Elephant Whispers, Shaunik with all that breeze,
03:12I think we just got started.
03:13It's a good run up.
03:15We share this with all the documentary filmmakers,
03:17the aspiring dreams of Indian filmmakers
03:20and the young people who want to make a film.
03:23And I'm sure, I hope that this empowers more filmmakers
03:26to go tell their stories.