Guneet Monga's Period. End of Sentence wins Best Documentary Short at the 91st Academy Awards 

International filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi’s India-set film, Period. End of Sentence, won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 91st Academy Awards. The 25-minute documentary explores the social stigma surrounding menstrual hygiene in rural northern India. Released on Netflix earlier this month, the film was co-produced by Indian producer Guneet Monga under her banner Sikhya Entertainment.

The film highlights the issue of menstrual hygiene in rural India. The non-fiction narrative follows the experiences of girls and women in Hapur, Uttar Pradesh as they fight against the stigma of female sanitation. The film also explores how the installation of a cost-effective sanitary napkin dispenser changes the lives of these women. Period. End of Sentence is a part of the The Pad Project, started by students at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles.

Thanking the Academy for the win, Guneet said, “Thank you to the Academy for the highest honour and for recognising the efforts of young girls from Oakwood school in LA to Kathikera in UP in helping us shatter the glass ceiling. Periods are normal and in no way do they stops us from achieving anything. This has been more than 10 years of work of Action India run by Gauri Chaudhary on educating people about reproductive rights on the ground in many villages. Feminist Majority Movement and Girls learn International have been pushing this cause in the US.”

Speaking about the importance of Rayka’s film, Guneet added, “Every girl in India or anywhere around the world needs to know this, and hear this loud and clear. Period is an end of a sentence, but not a girl’s education. I am honoured and absolutely humbled to partner with Melissa (Berton, co-producer) and Rayka in making our short documentary happen. Mandakini Kakar from Sikhya was on the floor working with the film and is the voice of the film too. And thank you Stacey Sher and Lisa Taback for supporting this massive dream. And thank you Netflix for truly putting us on the map! Here is to more girl power... I really want every girl to know that each one of them is a goddess. Now, that we have an Oscar, let’s go change the world.”

Other films nominated in the category were: A Night at the Garden, End Game, Lifeboat and Black Sheep.

Guneet Monga has previous produced films like Haraamkhor, Masaan, The Lunchbox, and Monsoon Shootout.