It seems to me sometimes very interesting and surprising how much we get undue influence from the western media and western publicity and almost everything they do. Nobody knew Danny Boyle in India even after the release of Slumdog Millionaire worldwide (now I’m not saying he wasn’t known among the industry experts, they know every newbie on the block because it’s their business). But once the news of Slumdog Millionaire begging for 4 Golden Globes and 7 BAFTA awards spread, Danny Boyle was a superstar filmmaker overnight!
89th Academy Awards
Movie critics, all of them, love him and his work and gave his movie a 4 out of 5-star rating; some even boldly went ahead and gave it 5 out of 5 stars, hum. I’ve seen the movie twice, and I liked the movie. But don’t tell me this is the best ‘Indian’ film made yet because it won Golden Globes and BAFTA and might win the Oscars tonight. Don’t tell me Slumdog Millionaire is a better movie than Lagaan, Mother India, Sholay, Taare Zameen Par, or even Munnabhai MBBS/Lage Raho Munnabhai, Rang De Basanti, etc. and if you think Slumdog is the best movie that is in India made so far, better than the best of Indian cinema to date. I already dislike you, did I tell you? And, it’s not an all-Indian movie in the first place; the banner is American, dear ones! It has an American director and producer, and the film is purely a taste of Americans and not of general Indians. You like this movie so much because it has won some “prestigious” awards. You want this movie so much because you think it has a chance to win the Oscars, the very first Oscar ever won by an Indian film. Is this primarily an ‘Indian’ movie? Why do some people die so often for the Oscars? Why do these guys think the Academy Awards are the best for the whole world? They may be best for English movies made for the US market, not the rest of the world, including India and the Indian audience. You like this movie so much because you think it has a chance to win the Oscars, the very first Oscar ever won by an Indian film. Is this primarily an ‘Indian’ movie? Why do some people die for the Oscars so often? Why do these guys think the Academy Awards are the best for the whole world? They may be best for English movies made for the US market, not the rest of the world, including India and the Indian audience. You like this movie so much because you think it has a chance to win the Oscars, the very first Oscar ever won by an Indian film. Is this primarily an ‘Indian’ movie? Why do some people die for the Oscars so often? Why do these guys think the Academy Awards are the best for the whole world? They may be best for English movies made for the US market, not the rest of the world, including India and the Indian audience.
Indians loved Lagaan, but did it win the Oscars? NEW. Why not? Because the Academy Awards judges are almost all Americans, and they don’t know that much about cricket and the passion that every Indian has for cricket these days; because they don’t know much about who Aamir Khan is here in India and so even his little dialogues and actions that would have made an Indian viewer go ‘fida,’ it wouldn’t have had any effect on the heads of the Oscars jury.
Indian youth loved Rang De Basanti, but it wasn’t even nominated for the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film. Why? Because all the judges of India know are the poor and the hungry Indians. They do not know that there is a rich India with handsome people and decent characters; Because they couldn’t see a single slum in the movie; Because they couldn’t connect with the idea of the movie, like almost every Indian who watched it.
Satyajit Ray won the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. I’ve seen some of his movies. Now I am not a very good film critic, but all I can say is that almost all of his films were aimed at the poor, hungry, and very pathetic-looking people of India. He portrayed the ‘real’ India. This is what the West wants to know and see about India. They don’t like Indian IT. They don’t like today’s Indian economic growth; they don’t understand the new youth mentality here. They don’t give a damn about India’s riches (why should they). India is still the India of the 1940s – the land of elephants and snakes; for them, this is still the land of poor and hungry people; this is still the land of slumdog road paths.
Does India have a chance of winning an Oscar?
Now you must think I’m totally against this. No, you may be wrong here. I just don’t understand why Indian people and pundits are so eager for the Oscars, which isn’t the ultimate prize for any other country except the United States or maybe the United Kingdom. If they want to be the top prize for the art of movies worldwide, they have to change the way they watch world movies made in different languages. You have produced less than 400 films in the US in a year, and you have about 40 awards to present. India produces more than 1000 films per year. China produces almost the same number of films per year; roughly, if we calculate that the whole world except the US and UK makes over 10,000 movies a year, you only have five nominations for one damn award among them! And you want us to call your mention the ultimate? Give me a break! And give those Oscar-loving freaks a break, too, who want to overlook these numbers and live in a wonderland of their own.
Kunal Pandya is CEO of NCrypted Technologies and co-founder of the social media site MetroJoint.com. He writes on his blog on internet marketing, social media, and India-centered topics such as the story of India.
