Sunday, 23 March 2014

Indian films-Road to the Oscars!!!

The Academy awards:
The Academy Awards, commonly known as The Oscars ,is an annual American awards ceremony honouring achievements in the film industry. Winners are awarded the statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is much better known by its nickname Oscar. The awards, first presented in 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, are overseen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
Role of Indian films in Oscars!!
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.


 India has sent over forty films to the competition. Most of India's submissions were in Hindi. Tamil films were submitted by the committee on eight occasions. Two submissions were made in Bengali, Marathi and Malayalam; only one film was in Telugu and Gujarati . Tamil actor Kamalhaasan has most often represented the country as a performer, with seven films submitted—including three consecutive films between 1985 and 1987, one of which he directed himself.The second most successful is actor, director, producer Aamir Khan with five movies to date: Earth, Lagaan, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par and Peepli Live. Bengali director Satyajit Ray, represented India three times. However, none of their films were nominated for the award.

  Satyajit Ray-A true legend!!!
Satyajit Ray,an Indian filmmaker and among the dozen or so great masters of world cinema, is known for his humanistic approach to cinema.He has represented India three times in this competition, the most by any director.

100 years of Indian Cinema-A bit disappointment at the Oscars!!!

  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".

The 1957 Hindi film Mother India was India's first submission. The film made it to the final shortlist and was nominated alongside four other films in the category. It came close to winning the Academy Award but lost to Nights of Cabiria by a single vote.Since 1984, India has not submitted a film on only one occasion; in 2003, the FFI controversially chose not make an entry as they felt no film would be in a position to compete with films from other nations. As of 2013, only three Indian films—Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan—have been nominated for the Academy Award for "Best Foreign Language Film".

Is it enough for traditional Indian film Industry??

The Rahman euphoria piggy-backed on the Slumdog Millionaire wave to clinch an Academy award. However, it doesn't look likely that a Bollywood movie or actor can pull off a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Made by a Taiwanese director, Ang Lee, in Mandarin, the Taiwanese-Hong Kong Kong- American production picked up the Best foreign film, was nominated for Best Film and Lee picked up the best director Oscar. Perhaps the fact that it had the clout of a major US studio backing it helped Ang Lee's chances.
Essentially because what qualifies as a masala bollywood fare refuses to move ahead from variations of how-the-boy-met-the-girl-pataoed-the-girl-sang-soulful-duets-met family/society-opposition-is-reunited/bumped off. If this is not the main theme of the movie, it is definitely a subplot. Most Indian movies have no nuances or layers and can be told in a single line. In fact, that is how most films find producers or actors - one-line story narrations.

The main thing for Indian films not making to the Oscars is 

Our movies are concerned with Star power,not Substantial plot!!!

Yet some Indians made our nation proud!!

 Bhanu Athaiya:
      First Indian to won an Academy award.She won Oscar for Best costume design for the film Gandhi.
 Satyajit Ray:
    He received the Honorary Award in the year 1992 for his excellence in film industry.

A.R.Rahman:
    A.R.Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Academy awards.He won two Oscars for Best Original score and Best original song for the film Slumdog millionaire.
A.R.Rahman also nominated for Best original score and Best original song(Jai ho)for the film 127 hours.

Resul pookutty:
   Resul won an Oscar for Best sound design for Slumdog millionaire.
Gulzar:
  Gulzar won an Oscar for Best original song for Slumdog millionaire.


India has produced only 6 Oscars since 1957.The Oscar count disappoints us a lot and lets hope for more honours for Indian talents in the world stage in future!!!

Jai ho!!!

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