Why Guneet Monga backed Honey Singh's Netflix documentary 'Famous'
In an interview with Firstpost, Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga and her colleague Achit Jain spoke about their third attempt at the Oscars with their short film Anuja. They also spoke about how women's roles in cinema have evolved and their Netflix documentary on singer Honey Singh, titled Famous. Famous was released on Netflix on December 20 and received mixed reviews.
'We were fascinated by Honey's life'
Speaking about Famous, Monga said, "Netflix reached out to us on this project, and then we brought Mozez Singh who's done an incredible job on it." "We were fascinated by Honey's life. Everything he did was a controversy. So if Honey was ready to bear it all, it definitely would make a great documentary. So that's why we were excited because he was ready to talk and he was ready to tell his story and we wanted to know more."
'Anuja' is a beautiful film: Monga
Monga also shed light on Anuja and described it as "a beautiful film with two young Indian girls navigating their life." She added, "It starts out with two men thinking that they have control on little Anuja, but in the end, it is Anuja who has control on them." Directed by Adam Graves, the film was produced by his wife Suchitra. This is their first venture into filmmaking.
Monga discussed challenges for independent filmmakers
Highlighting the challenges of independent filmmakers, Monga said, "It's definitely hard because it's expensive to go to cinemas." She feels these filmmakers not only have to work hard to get funding and make good films but also discover their own distribution channels. "I think a lot of innovation needs to happen in distribution at this point of time," she added.
'There's still a long way to go'
When asked about the changing roles of women in cinema, Monga accepted that things have improved but added, "There's still a long way to go." "If you see the over money report summary this year, there's still a long way to go where women characters can be celebrated." "So the report says that there is only 5% improvement from last year to this year, with female characters having better storylines this year."
Monga once battled ageism in the industry
Monga was also candid about the ageism she has faced in the industry. "Early on, it was difficult for me to break in to get a hearing in the room or get scripts forward because I was very, very young. I feel I faced ageism more than gender in my profession." "It's definitely been a shift in how I look at myself and what I'd like to do."
