Filmmaker Guneet Monga Receives Second Highest Civilian French Honour

Award-winning filmmaker Guneet Monga is to be conferred with the second highest civilian French honour – the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans I’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres). This honour has earlier been given to Hollywood stars like Meryl Streep, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Bruce Willis. Revelling in her recent success with Umesh Bist’s Pagglait starring Sanya Malhotra, this is another proud moment for Monga. 

She founded the Sikhya Entertainment production company in 2008, which has produced multiple critically acclaimed projects like That Girl in Yellow Boots, The Lunchbox, Masaan, Monsoon Shootout, and Oscar award-winning documentary Period, End of Sentence. 

Photograph by Mark Bennigton

Guneet has a history of being a trailblazer not just in India but internationally as well, she was one of the first Indian producers to be inducted into the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, an organization committed to advancing the arts. Her film The Lunchbox was also nominated under the ‘Best Film Not in the English Language’ at BAFTA, and for ‘Best Picture- Feature’ at the Dubai International Film Festival making her a popular name.  

Monga co-founded the cinema collective ‘Indian Women Rising’ along with Ekta Kapoor and Tahira Kashyap in an effort towards supporting female content creators in India and this collective which aided the critically acclaimed short film ‘Bittu’ by executive producer, Karishma Dev Dube which was shortlisted for the Oscars.  

Photograph by Vaibhav Nadgaonkar