Lyricist Javed Akhtar disagrees and is categorical in his response. He believes that “We don’t make the cut because our films lack the quality that the winning entries in the Foreign Films category demands”. He agrees that at times our selection of films has been strange but overall “it’s a clear and simple case of our films not being good enough to meet global standards.” Film-maker Aparna Sen ("36 Chowringhee Lane", "Mr & Mrs. Iyer", "15 Park Avenue") is both amused and bewildered at this huge and annual tamasha that greets the OSCAR event! “What is the big deal? Why do we make such a mega song and dance about this event? Because it is completely Hollywood-specific? Remember, excellence is not always the criteria for the winning entries. There are many other considerations at play.” Aparna should know. She is been a part of several international film festival juries and discovered that you can be out-voted for reasons that may not necessarily be cinematic-excellence driven. “The other thing that should be kept in mind is the credentials and quality of the selection committee. The group should be completely fair, free and fearless. Why do they lean so heavily towards Bollywood? How many films from the oeuvre of brilliant regional film-makers like Girish Kasaravalli, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji Karun, Buddhadev Dasgupta – even the great Satyajit Ray – have ever been selected? Is not it both shocking and a shame? At the end of the day, great films are not those that are in Oscars, but those that remain in your heart and mind years after the film was made and the film-maker is no more. Make a check-list in your mind of your most cherished films and then quickly check out if any of them has got an Oscar!”
Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal has his own take. “It really has to do with your knowledge of the dynamics and mechanism required for the Oscar game … of how smart and savvy your networking is out there … of whether you have identified the key people to tap (in terms of jury members) and hired the right PR firm to publicise your film in the appropriate manner. I think the only people, to my mind, who have been able to play this game really well are Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowarikar. Their "Lagaan" foray should be viewed as a case study! So it is no use lamenting or getting heated up about why we haven’t made the cut there. Most guys here don’t have a clue about all this…” Aamir does. And today as both producer and director of "Taare Zamin Par" (India’s official entry) and two forays ("Lagaan" and "RDB") behind him, will he be third time lucky? As this goes into print, word is out that "TZP" is out of the Oscar race! (The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film of the year at the Academy Awards is the "The Secret in Their Eyes" [“El Secreto de Sus Ojos”] from Argentina) Another round of controversies, finger pointing, chest beating and phirang-bashing on the cards?! When will we ever grow up?
Veteran film-maker Shyam Benegal has his own take. “It really has to do with your knowledge of the dynamics and mechanism required for the Oscar game … of how smart and savvy your networking is out there … of whether you have identified the key people to tap (in terms of jury members) and hired the right PR firm to publicise your film in the appropriate manner. I think the only people, to my mind, who have been able to play this game really well are Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowarikar. Their "Lagaan" foray should be viewed as a case study! So it is no use lamenting or getting heated up about why we haven’t made the cut there. Most guys here don’t have a clue about all this…” Aamir does. And today as both producer and director of "Taare Zamin Par" (India’s official entry) and two forays ("Lagaan" and "RDB") behind him, will he be third time lucky? As this goes into print, word is out that "TZP" is out of the Oscar race! (The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film of the year at the Academy Awards is the "The Secret in Their Eyes" [“El Secreto de Sus Ojos”] from Argentina) Another round of controversies, finger pointing, chest beating and phirang-bashing on the cards?! When will we ever grow up?
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