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It was her perseverance that took Junit Monga to the places she’s reached. Coming from a very humble background, Munja, through his production company Sikhya Entertainment, has produced notable films like Gangs of Wasseypur, The Lunchbox, Masaan, Zubaan and Pagglait. She recently won her second Academy Award for The Elephant Whisperers.
“I think stories choose us. They come knocking on our door, and how we respond to them describes our journey,” Monga said at an event Saturday night on Kimold Prescott Street next to the Indian branch of the New Acropolis, the School of Practical Philosophy, which has centers in 60 countries.
The event, titled ‘Human Values Through Culture’, saw Monga share some of the lessons that have been instrumental in shaping her life. The first comes from the days she spent at the Ritu Nanda Insurance Institute in Delhi. “Selling insurance to middle-class people is a difficult task because you’re asking them to shell out money—many of whom live on a tight budget—for something that will help their families once they stop working. We knew you’d get 10 nos followed by one yes.” Celebration taught me that lesson. With my refusal.
Another lesson she says is something she learned from the head of an accomplished team of technicians based outside the US. “We were producing a whistleblower movie against a big company. We had finished the shooting part but we had no money left for post-production. I reached out to one of the companies, who did color correction for movies like Avatar, to solve my problem and they said they would do it. And when I asked why The answer was, “Because I can.” Monga says this encouraged them to watch films that didn’t make commercial sense. “We’re in the equity business, and we’re not shying away from that. But what we do, my team and I, we do more as well, we take on films that don’t make commercial sense, and here we are with an Academy Award.”
The event organized by New Acropolis also put what he learned to the test. Within a few minutes of its onset, there was a power outage of more than an hour, but by setting and imparting the principles this school of philosophy believes in and imparts, there was no chaos despite the uncertainty of when the electricity would come back on. In fact, some experts and volunteers set up to keep the spirit of the attendees alive. As Yaron Barzilai, philosopher, New Acropolis, said near the end of the event: “We cannot have philosophy without putting it into practice.”
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