By Quaid Najmi

Mumbai, March 17 (IANS): Victorious and beaming filmmaker Guneet Monga returned to a rousing reception, carrying the Oscar trophy, at Mumbai Airport here early on Friday.

A weary but cheery Monga, the executive producer of Oscar-winning documentary short film The Elephant Whisperers, reached here shortly after 3 a.m., to huge screams of excitement by the people present there to receive their near and dear ones.

The paparazzi was also out in full strength and virtually made a bull run for her, with their cameras or microphones aimed at her, seeking her fresh reactions to her Oscar conquest.

However, she barely spoke and was hardly audible in the milieu and her security personnel bundled her into a waiting car along the Oscar trophy within minutes.

All the time, Monga held on dearly to her coveted Oscar statuette - now becoming a familiar figurine in Indian entertainment circles, raised it, waved it a little, but it was mostly close to her chest, even in the vehicle.

Though appearing tired after her long flight from Los Angeles, Monga managed to mumble a few bytes, blew kisses all around, kept up a steady grin while fielding media queries.

Subsequently, as the media kept wanting forore, she invited them to a nearby five-star hotel for a quick photo session and a brief tete-a-tete, sportingly heeded the camera persons' requests for different poses with the glittering Oscar.

Last week, Monga was catapulted to the global entertainment cloud nine when she bagged her second Oscar for the documentary, "The Elephant Whisperers".

She belongs to the small exclusive club of top film personalities who have won Oscars in various departments of film-making and gladdened the hearts of the countrymen, too.