THE OSCARS AND INDIA !!!

It all started on one fine day-May 16, 1929. The first ever Academy Awards were held on this very day at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. 250 people attended the event. The tickets were worth US$5 and the event lasted ten minutes. Best picture went to silent movie Wings, starring Clara Bow and Charles Rogers, actors now forgotten - creating a major historical event in the realm of movies.

The celebration still continues, where legends come and go, but Academy Awards is still there, making its presence felt every year, getting grander and bigger. The Oscars have a rule as well – winners are told to limit their “thank you” speeches to 45 seconds, after which the orchestra takes over. But rules are meant to be broken, aren’t they? In 2001, Julia Roberts began her Best Actress award acceptance speech for her role in Erin Brockovich by making sure the conductor knew exactly how she felt. This is what she said – “Sir, you’re doing a great job with that stick. So why don’t you sit, because I may never be here again.” Seriously, how can you say no to that face, right? It worked, the orchestra let her finish. Let’s talk about another miracle at the Academy Awards. The Titanic, as we all know, sure did sink, but the movie did wonders. In 1998, the movie won 11 Oscars. After winning the Best Director Oscar, James Cameron announced, “I’m the king of the world”.  

We started sending our movies to the Oscars only after 1958, Mother India being our first submission. Since then we have been sending entries to Oscars except for the years 1961, 1982 and 1984. But we did too create history at the Oscars, owing to the great success of
Indian films like Mother India, Mahanagar, Manthan, Payal ki Jhankaar, Saaransh, Lagaan etc. Though not all of them came back victorious, but some achieved huge appreciation and did make it to the winners list.

First Indian to receive an Oscar is Bhanu Athayia, who won the Academy award for Best Costume Designer for her work in the film Gandhi (1982). Since we are naming legends of Indian film industry, let’s not forget to mention the master of all filmmakers, Satyajit Ray. So impressed was the world with his vision and depiction of cinema that in 1992 the Academy Awards presented him with an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime achievement. Further making the country proud, entries like Slumdog Millionaire made India cry in joy after it won several awards in the following categories – Best Original Song (Jai Ho); accredited to AR Rahman and Gulzar sahib, Best Original Score again accredited to AR Rahman and Best Sound Mixing award which was accredited to Resul Pookutty.

Other than films, short documentaries have also shown their magic at the Oscars. 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 in the year 1979. It was a short documentary film by Chopra and nominated in the 'Best Documentary on Short Subjects' category. Ashwin Kumar, son of fashion designer Ritu Kumar, made his entry to the Oscar nomination list with his short film ' Little Terrorist' in the year 2005, but unfortunately didn’t make it to the winner’s list. Also, in the year 2009, Smile Pinki, received the Oscar for Best Short Documentary.

This year, Marathi film Court beat blockbuster hits like Rajkumar Hirani’s PK, Neeraj Ghyaywan’s Masaan and SS Rajamouli’s Baahubali in the Oscar race, thus making an official entry to the Oscars 2016.

Chaitanya Tamhane, 28, wrote and directed the story of a folk singer who is accused of causing a sewage worker to commit suicide with his music. The movie has had a fascinating year, travelling to 19 national and international film festivals and picking up 16 awards.

This does not end the list of accomplishments enjoyed by us over the years, rather gives us a few moments of both happiness and sorrow – former for our victories, and latter for the ones lost and the ones which did not get the chance to be nominated for the Academy Awards, such as Do Bhiga Zameen, Ardh Satya, Anand, Bandini, Kagaz ke Phool, Udaan and the most recent Lunchbox. But as we all know, all’s well that ends well, and all movies end with a good note, just like the awards night – waiting to return the next year with more awards and accolades!!!