The Oscars and Indian cinema
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The Oscars and Indian cinema
Bollywood and Oscars over 100 years of Cinema
Tejashree Bhopatkar, The Times of India, Apr 25, 2013
On completion of 100 years of Indian Cinema, it's definitely an unfortunate moment that despite of honest attempts Indian movies could not win any Oscar Awards. On the contrary we can say that Bollywood is living up to its audience's choice by producing movies with 'entertainment' as the sole factor.
Since 1957, India has sent 45 films as its official entry for the Oscars. Out of these, only 3 films - Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001) were nominated for the Oscars in the "Best Foreign Language Film".
Not many know that An Encounter with Faces was filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra's first directorial attempt and interestingly won a nomination at the Oscars. It was a short documentary film by Chopra and nominated in the 'Best Documentary on Short Subjects' category where in Ashwin Kumar, son of fashion designer Ritu Kumar, made his entry to the Oscar nomination list with his short film ' Little Terrorist'. This 15-minute short was about a boy who crosses the line of control between India and Pakistan.
On the other hand, if not Bollywood movies as a whole, we have Indians as Oscar winners. India received its first Oscars in 1982, when honorary BhanuAthaiya won the award as the Best Costume Designer for Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi in 1982. Exactly after a decade Satyajit Ray received honorary Academy Awards at Oscars.
2008 was the best year for Indian Cinema as Bollywood cash in 3 Oscar awards. Russell Pookutty won Best Sound Mixing (with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke) for Slumdog Millionaire, followed by A.R Rahman won Best Score and Best Original Song (music) again for Slumdog Millionaire, Gulzar won Best Song (lyrics) for Slumdog Millionaire.
That was all about Bollywood and Oscars, now let us turn our focus to Films which had strong Indian connections and filmed in India but unfortunately were not a Bollywood movies. One of such is definitely Slumdog Millionaire, an Indian based movie with a Hollywood producer, Danny Boyle. Slumdog Millionaire shot entirely in India and with an almost Indian cast won as many as 8 Oscars in different category.
The next movie would be obviously Life Of Pi, again a film produced by foreign producers yet have Indian actors like Irfan Khan, Tabu, Suraj Sharma and is also filmed in India.
If talking about Oscar wining movies and Indian connections, one should not forget the renowned movie Gandhi in 1982, an epic biographical film which dramatises the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It took an Englishman, Richard Atten borough to make the best biographical film on India's most prominent freedom fighters Mahatma Gandhi. Ben Kingsley portrayed Gandhi to perfection. Like Slumdog Millionaire, Gandhi too, wasn't an Indian film though it was widely shot in India and had several Indian actors in its cast. And like Slumdog, Gandhi too went on to win 8 Oscar Awards.
The last but not the least is Water, starring John Abraham, Lisa Ray, SeemaBiswas which was again produced by David Hamilton. DeepaMehta's Water was another film with an absolute Indian setting, Indian cast and Indian language but won an Oscar nomination for the Best Foreign Language Film from Canada, since the producer was from that country.
That was all about Bollywood-Oscars and Indian connections in Oscars over 100 years of Cinema. Hope Bollywood cash-in few more Oscars in the nearing future.
