The Ultimate Recognition ???

‘Academy Awards’ or popularly known as ‘Oscars’ are considered to be the highest recognitions for any movie, presented annually by the United States Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). Does it deserve so much importance for Indian Movies which are qualified to be nominated only in best foreign language category?

The Academy Awards were started in 1929 to recognize the excellence of film makers of Hollywood basically and not for the whole world. There are about forty categories for the awards but any non-English dialogue movie is qualified only for one category ‘Best Foreign Language Film’. Does our nominations for only one category not makes Hollywood movies superior?


We produce about three times the movies which are being produced by Hollywood. We can’t disagree the facts that many of them are mere copies of Hollywood movies and lack technology, but not all. Many of them have the potential to claim the quality and originality. So far 34 Indian movies have been sent as official entries for the Oscars including the 2008 entry ‘Taare Zameen Par’ but only three of them could get the nomination- 'Mother India' (1957), 'Salaam Bombay' (1988), 'Lagaan' (2001). Do they need American Stamp to prove themselves?



Amitabh Bachchan, visiting Britain to receive several awards, told a news conference at the Houses of Parliament in London he did not believe that an Indian film winning an Oscar was the "ultimate recognition for any great film" and added that it was offensive to suggest that.


Indian Culture and traditions are obviously different from that of western and these appear in our movies. Many things in Indian Movies may appear funny to the western audience and especially to the jury. If we watch the movies which could make the nominations, you will find all of them were about the undeveloped, poor India, including foreign productions ‘Gandhi’ (1982) and ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008). Do they not want to see the progressive, developed India? I appreciate Indian and western co-productions like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which got 8 Oscars in 10 categories nominated, including A R Rehman for best original score and best original song, but this does not indicate that he deserves recognition only for this movie.