The Girl With The Golden Statuette
By
Jaskiran Kapoor
Guneet Monga Kapoor
Guneet Monga Kapoor
If there was ever an extraordinary journey to encapsulate, a chronicle to record, a story to be inspired from, it is that of Guneet Monga Kapoor.
It was the summer of 2004, about three years before the release of the Indian-born Canadian-American filmmaker Vic (Victor) Sarin’s film, Partition. As young journalists, we were a supercharged and excited lot, ready to take on the world. And so naturally, when news of a ‘Hollywood’ cast and film production team shooting in Chandigarh, the capital of the northern state of Punjab came, we pulled out all the stops, worked the network, and found a way in. Mine was Guneet Monga Kapoor (then Guneet Monga). A major attraction was also to get a taste of what it would be like to work with a film crew. It couldn’t be so hard, I thought to myself. So, with an encouraging push and a nudge from National Award-winning costume designer and actor, Dolly Ahluwalia Tewari, I was introduced to Guneet. Cropped hair, dressed simply in a white salwar-kameez, and sitting cross-legged on the edge of a large bed in their Sector 9 adda or hangout venue, for the next five months, Guneet was busier than a bee. Scribbling furiously away at her notepad, tallying log sheets, delegating chores, she was juggling a multitude of things: laundry lists, menu, transport details, interns, extras, rooms, costumes, and so on.
This was my first tryst with ‘behind the scenes’ of a film production, and certainly not my cup of tea. But it was Guneet’s, and she did it with an enviable zeal and passion. Fast forward to the present, and that zeal and passion hasn’t waned.
The Big Win
Twelfth of March 2023: A day that went down in history when an Indian won the first-ever Oscar in the Best Documentary Short film category. It told the simple story of an indigenous couple, Bomman and Bellie and an orphaned baby elephant, Raghu, they take under their care. The Elephant Whisperers had so much heart that it beat tough contenders like Stranger at the Gate and How Do You Measure a Year? It brought home the first Oscar by an Indian production company, Sikhya Entertainment, at the helm of which was its proud producer, Guneet Monga Kapoor. This was a win Guneet had been working passionately and relentlessly for years. This was a win for which she had tackled arduous obstacle courses. This was a win she had manifested for the longest time. This was a win she earned and deserved fair and square.
However, if you know Guneet and have had a chance to meet her and know her story, then the Oscars were never a turning point for her. Yes, it was a reward, and a well-deserved one. Guneet’s turning point, I have always believed, came much before that. And that is the story of her life.
The Story of Guneet’s Life: Kahani Filmi Hai! (It is truly straight out of a Film!)
One year of chasing her, exchanging messages on WhatsApp, on phone, on Zoom, going back and forth ─ pinning down Houdini would’ve been easier than getting hold of Guneet. Post Oscar, life for her has been on the jet-set mode, with a schedule packed with hectic travel, rounds of film festivals, talks, seminars, endless interviews, ‘and I got married too’, flashing her unmissable dimpled smile as she connects via Zoom for a quick chat and blushing about her beau, Sunny Kapoor. ‘I kissed many frogs before I found my prince’, she says. Love sure makes the world go round! It has also been a year of managing two home stations: Mumbai, where her work is and Delhi where her family, Sunny is.
Family. The one safe haven snatched from Guneet at a very young age. This inheritance of loss, of a never-ending chasm had been unbearable till she met Sunny and his parents, especially his mother, Sudesh Rani Kapoor, whom she fondly addresses as the ‘SRK’ of her life; who listens to her stories like a mother would ─ unconditionally, non-judgmentally and lovingly. ’And then she picks the phone and shares it with such pride with her extended family. I missed that for so long, and that mother’s love found its way back to me through Sunny’s mom,’ says Guneet.
Greater Kailash, House Number Barah (twelve), South Delhi.
It is a chapter of her childhood she rarely speaks about. A chapter she’d rather not revisit. ‘This was the place where I was born, the early years spent in this huge paternal home with a toxic joint family, living the trauma of abuse every day. In this massive house, my parents and I were shoved in a corner, in a tiny room and I was not allowed to leave the room, stand in the sun on the main road or even move out,’ Guneet recalls, every cell in her body rejecting the memories. Especially the violent night when the police arrived with two trucks and she and her family were pushed out of the house.
‘The GK house was such a massive kothi (bungalow) with a long driveway and sprawling backyard, and I never got to enjoy any of it.’ Her parents, father Damanjeet Singh Monga and mother, Amarpreet Kaur, exited Greater Kailash, house number twelve and moved to Surajkund, about eight kilometres from South Delhi, into a rented accommodation. ‘Rupees five thousand rent per month. This is the place, the society where I found friends, had my first crush, first love! It was a small abode but those were happy years. My parents loved me, and stayed together because of me, of our “life is beautiful” scene. They faced so many adversities yet they were protective and extremely loving. My mom, who was from Bhopal was a very well-educated lady, convent-educated, a graduate, stunning looking, and from a very well-off family, while my father was a thorough hustler who was a property consultant, ran a tent house business, was a carpet trader, but a happy man. He was the romantic, the dreamer, the giver, the risk-taker. I believe I get that from him, this grand design of life! You need anything and he would get it, “kharch kar dena”, (spend it) and would insist on living your dreams. They educated me and gave me enough to survive, and would always say, no matter what, “tu sadak par kabhi nayi soyegi” (you’ll never sleep on the road),’ says Guneet, imbibing her mother’s more defined, disciplined and principled personality in her work ethic.
