Guneet Monga boards India’s official Oscar entry, Jallikattu as executive producer

Mumbai, Dec 14: Filmmaker Guneet Monga says she is honoured to come on board Jallikattu, India's official entry in the International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Awards, as an executive producer.

Directed by Lijo Jose Pellissery, the Malayalam feature follows a tribe of men coming together to stop a bull that has run amok in their village.

Monga, known for backing films like Gangs of Wasseypur series, Masaan and The Lunchbox, took to social media to share the news, saying she was thrilled to join the team ahead of its journey.

"It's an absolute honour to join team 'Jallikattu' on its Oscar journey. 'Jallikattu' blew my mind, it's a high octane masterpiece! Lijo, you're phenomenal. Let's do this," the producer tweeted.

Last year, Period. End of Sentence, the 2018 short film on menstruation co-produced by Monga, won the Oscar in the Documentary Short Subject category.

Jallikattu, which derives its name from the popular-yet-controversial bull-taming event in south India, is based on a short story by Hareesh. The film features actors Antony Varghese, Chemban Vinod Jose, Sabumon Abdusamad and Santhy Balachandran.

Jallikattu had its premiere in September 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival and received widespread critical acclaim.

The movie was particularly praised for Pellissery's spectacular directing effort, ably supported by Girish Gangadharan's cinematography and Renganaath Ravee's wild sound design work.

Pellissery also won the best director trophy at the 50th International Film Festival of India last year for Jallikattu.