How Guneet Monga Rewrote Bollywood's Rules and Won an Oscar Doing It
5/4/202643 min
She grew up navigating a war zone of a family home, arrived in Bombay with ₹50 lakhs borrowed from a neighbour, and watched her debut film get pulled from theatres the morning after India lost the cricket World Cup. That's where most stories end. Guneet Monga's was just beginning. In this candid, far-ranging conversation with ET’s Anirban Chowdhury and in-house film journalist and critic Rajesh N Naidu, the Oscar-winning producer and CEO of Sikhya Entertainment traces a 20-year journey defined by jugaad, grit, and an unshakeable belief in the power of story. From Gangs of Wasseypur to The Lunchbox, Kill to Women in Film India — this is the real education they don't teach at film school.
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First 90 secondsAnirban Chaudhuri· Host0:00
[gentle music] Guneet Monga is an iconoclast I'm neither a writer nor a family member of an actor.
Guneet Monga· Guest0:08
[laughs] So I feel like, then who am I? I've, for long, I have been in identity crisis. [upbeat music] I sit absolutely between creative and the commerce A producer who's quietly rewritten the rules of Indian cinema. A role of a producer is not just to make IP. A role of a producer is to expand the value of IP From early setbacks in the family and grind at Balaji Telefilms, to becoming the force behind taking Anurag Kashyap's films global, and backing bold auteur-led cinema, Guneet's journey has been defined by grit, jugaad, and relentless problem-solving, and it culminates in two Oscar wins. I was born in a very, very rich family in GK 2, and but however, that house was very, um, conflicted. My mom and I used to plan the whole day. Those 20 steps, you will get so abused. Grief became my best friend. 2006, we thought we were over the moon, and we're genius, that we are making a cricket film ahead of time, and then India goes and loses. "Ye picture wapas le jao. Agar logon ko abhi cricket ke baare mein baat karenge toh woh theater tod denge, jala denge." I didn't understand how does international sales happen, and I traveled to UK, I traveled to New York, I traveled to LA, met most of the buyers in their offices, gave DVDs