Suriya connection to Oscar documentary Producer - Lizzy Anthony first Tamil actress in INBA Award

 Guneet Monga, women producer who was involved in the production of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Elephant Whisperers," was also a producer for the Tamil film "Soorarai Pottru," which starred Suriya. Although heavily promoted for the Oscars in 2021, the film did not win any awards. As a result, Suriya became one of the Academy members eligible to vote from India. The film is now being remade in Hindi with Akshay Kumar, but Monga is no longer one of the producers. She has been replaced by Vikram Malhotra of Suriya's company, which led to a lawsuit filed by Sikhya Entertainment against Suriya over the rights to the book by Deccan Airlines founder Captain G R Gopinath. However, the verdict went in favor of Suriya as he proved that he had made the payment for the copyright of the book.

When it was announced that Monga's produced documentary was in the running for the Oscars, Suriya was the first to congratulate her on Twitter, and she thanked him for his support. Suriya also voted this time as an Academy member. In 2019, Monga's documentary "Period. End of Sentence" won the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject.

In an interview with Thanthi TV, the couple Bomman and Belli, who were featured in the documentary, revealed that they did not receive any money from the documentary makers as they were employees of the State Forest Department and were told that they were not permitted to receive any money for such activities. However, they were happy that their efforts were well received. The elephant Raghu in the documentary was said to have been released into the forests by the Forest Department, and Bomman tried unsuccessfully to track him down. He is now working in Dindigul but was in Mudumalai Forest at the time of filming.

Radha, a professor at GRT College in Coimbatore, where Kartiki Gonsalves the director of documentary studied VISCOM, said that the Oscar win is a response to those who asked, "What are you going to achieve by studying VISCOM?" She explained that Kartiki had followed the couple and the elephants for six years and condensed it into a 41-minute documentary. Radha had been following her student from the poster release to the Oscar nomination. College Vice Principal Dr. KK Ramachandran said that the college had planned to hold a function to honor their old student after the documentary began streaming on Netflix, and now it will be to honor the Oscar winner. Kartiki did her schooling in Ooty, her hometown, and is now based in Mumbai. To learn more about her, visit http://www.kartikigonsalves.com/about.

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Lizzy Antony is the first Tamil actress to win the 100 Outstanding Women award. The Indian National Bar Association (INBA) has been awarding 'THE PHENOMENAL SHE' award to 100 outstanding women every year since 2018 to honor outstanding women who have achieved in every field in India. Every year, a book called 'THE PHENOMENAL SHE' containing the details of the awardees is also published. Accordingly, in the year 2023, 'The Phenomenal She' (THE PHENOMENAL SHE) award ceremony with the release of the 5th edition was held on March-11.

This year, Delhi High Court Judge Rekha Palli, Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge Lisa Gill, Rajya Sabha Member Dr. Sasikala Pushpa Ramasamy, Padma Shri Awardee Dr. Soma Ghose, Padma Shri Vadsava, IAS Officer Soumya Sharma, State Adivasi Welfare Minister Ms. Renuka Singh and many others. These awards were presented to the women achievers from the fields. It is noteworthy that this time actress Lizzy Antony has received this unique female award for the first time from Tamil Nadu.

Lizzy Antony, who made her debut as an actress in the Tamil film industry in 2011 with the film Thoonga Nagaram, has since acted in many notable roles in films including Thanga Meenal, Peranbu, Nadodiigal 2, Her recently released film was Gutta Gusthi and Bommai Nayaki.