“I DO not know about Oscar award,” was Bellie’s response to “The Elephant Whisperers” winning honours at the 95th Academy Awards but the documentary’s “leading lady,”loves being a “Valarppu Thaai (foster mother) for abandoned young pachyderms.

“Elephants are like our children, We see it as great service to a child, who lost its mother,” says Bellie, who featured in “The Elephant Whisperers.” It won the award for Best Short Documentary at the Oscars on Monday. Admitting that she did not know about the award, Bellie however, said she was excited to receive the wishes, which were pouring in.

“I have reared many such elephants, treated them like my own children, looking after them as a foster mother (valarppu thaai), particularly those who lose their mothers in the jungle,” Bellie told PTI. She further said, “This was in our blood, as our ancestors were also working like that, as described by our grandmother, who comes from a mahout family”. On the documentary winning an Oscar, Bellie quipped, “I do not know about the award.” Asked about her ‘hero and husband’ Bomman in the documentary, she said that he had gone to Salem to bring an elephant which had some serious problem and was eagerly waiting to serve the new arrival.

“The Elephant Whisperers”, directed by Kartiki Gonsalves, in its 39-minute runtime, depicts an unbreakable bond between two abandoned elephant calves Raghu and Amu and their caretakers, Bomman and Bellie.