Jumbo Toys

With an Oscar nomination, The Elephant Whisperers has set a benchmark for stories about nature and its relationship with humans

- Suhani Singh

IT was Aww’ at first sight. In 2017, when natural history and social documentary photographer and filmmaker Kartiki Gonsalves was driving to Bengaluru, she chanced upon an adorable sight on her way, at the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu—a three-month-old elephant calf, Raghu, being taken to the river for a bath by his human caretaker, Bomman. I instantly saw this beautiful bond between the two where he Bomman] was literally everything to Raghu,” she says. The encounter marked the beginning of a five-year cinematic journey, during which Gonsalves and her crew followed the displaced calves, Raghu and Ammu, and their adopted parents, Bomman and Bellie, across different seasons. That journey culminates in Los Angeles, where Gonsalves’s film, The Elephant Whisperers streaming on Netflix), is in contention for the best documentary short Oscar.