Oscar-Winning Producer Guneet Monga Kapoor on Genre Pivot, Women in Film India at Cannes: ‘I Am Ambitious, and I’m Not Scared About That Ambition’

A year after founding Women in Film India, Guneet Monga Kapoor – whose “The Elephant Whisperers” took the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film at the 2023 Oscars – was at Cannes with four scholarship recipients in tow and a producing slate that signals a deliberate move into genre cinema, women-led franchises and, eventually, gaming.

Monga Kapoor brought two scholars to the Cannes Film Market‘s Producers Network and two to its Impact Lab, through a formal tie-up with the market. The initiative, backed at Cannes this year by Jio Studios and clothing brand Rareism – part of the House of Rare group – received more than 200 applications for the four places. Women in Film India, launched during Cannes 2025, has reached 3,500 members in its first twelve months.

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“We are trying to build skill development enhancement and a bridge into other markets,” Monga Kapoor tells Variety. The organization runs monthly workshops in partnership with So House, alongside resilience workshops led by life coach Chetna Chakravarthy, held online over six-week cycles in groups of 20 to 30 participants per batch. Six projects and six women were taken to the Toronto market last year; one, Katyayani Kumar’s “Sons of the River,” has since been selected by Film Independent, Monga Kapoor says, while Paromita Dhar’s “Ulta” placed second in the Co-Production Features competition at the WAVES Film Bazaar in Goa. Monga Kapoor says she hopes to develop a script lab and a producers breakfast series in India, funding and staffing permitting.

On her own slate, her comedy thriller “Udta Teer,” a co-production with Dharma Productions starring Ayushmann Khurrana and Sara Ali Khan, is set for a Sept. 11 release. An as-yet-unnamed Tamil-language film – the first project she has financed outright rather than produced without equity – directed by Karthik Subbaraj under her Jio Studios deal. The film is in post-production and will carry a score by Ilaiyaraaja, marking the composer’s 1,540th film. A live orchestral session with 80 musicians was recorded in Prague. “Kill 2” is also in the works, and Monga Kapoor says three films will go to the floor within the year. A further slate of female-led genre pictures – including an atmospheric natural disaster film and a slasher – is in the deal-closing stage.

She is forthright about the market dynamics behind the genre shift. Streamer acquisition spending has contracted: JioHotstar has redirected resources toward cricket, Zee has slowed its commissioning, and Prime Video’s content slates are locked through 2027 and 2028. Theatrical audiences, she argues, are currently gravitating toward heightened, franchise-driven fare.

“As a producer, I always sit between commerce and the arts,” she says. “Unfortunately, dramas do break out far and fewer.” She adds that even prestige drama now typically requires streaming backing before production can commence.

The longer-term goal is to build women-led franchises that extend into gaming and virtual production – two areas she says she is actively studying after attending market presentations at Cannes. “I’m figuring out how to build that and put some equity behind it,” she says of gaming.

Monga Kapoor says she remains ambitious about returning to Cannes – and one day competing for the Palme d’Or. Her previous Cannes credits include “Peddlers,” which screened in Critics’ Week in 2012, “The Lunchbox” in the same section the following year, and “Masaan,” which competed in Un Certain Regard in 2015. “I am ambitious, and I’m not scared about that ambition,” she says.