What is the first thought that comes to mind when we think of Indians at the Oscars? For some, it’s the name of Bhanu Athaiya or A.R Rahman and for others, it’s the controversy over which film made it as this year’s official Indian entry for “Best Foreign Language Film” category. But actually being “nominated” in the same category is totally a different ball game.
It has only been thrice that the official Indian entry has been nominated in the said category. India’s first ever official entry in the year 1958, the film “Mother India” by Mehboob Khan lost to Italian film “Nights of Cabiria” by a single vote. Thirty years later in 1989, it was “Salaam Bombay” by Mira Nair and finally it was “Lagaan” by Ashutosh Gowariker in the year 2002. “Water” by Deepa Mehta was nominated in the year 2007 but it was an official entry from Canada and not India.
Bhanu Athaiya was the first Indian to win an Oscar in 1983 for “Best Costume Design” in the film “Gandhi.” The same year, Ravi Shankar was also nominated for “Best Original Score” but lost to John William for the film “ET”. The award for “Best Original Score” was claimed by A.R.Rehman in the year 2009 for “Slumdog Millionaire”, that was a big milestone. He was again nominated for the same category in 2011 for the film 127 hours.
A.R Rahman the genius that he is has also won an Oscar under the category of “Best Original Song” for the famous song “Jai ho.” He was nominated again in 2011 for the song “if I rise” by Dido and AR Rahman from the film 127 hours.
ALSO READ: Final farewell to Sridevi from Chiranjeevi, Aishwarya, Prakash Raj and others
Bombay Jayashree was nominated for “Best Original Song” in the year 2013 for the song “Pi’s Lullaby” from the film “Life of Pi”. Satyajit Ray has never won an Oscar in competition and although his films were sent thrice as official Indian entries for “Best Foreign Language Film” in the year 1959, 1963 and 1978 he did not make it to the nomination list. However, such is his greatness and brilliance of craft that the Academy awarded him an Honorary Oscar in the year 1992.
Another great filmmaker of Indian origin that few outside the film fraternity are aware of is Ismail Merchant, who he has been nominated four times; thrice for the prestigious “Best Picture” category in the years 1987, 1993 and 1994 and once for the “Best Short Film” category in the year 1961. Ashwin Kumar was nominated in the same category for his film “Little Terrorist” in the year 2005.
It has been 5 years since an Indian has been nominated for an “Oscar”, but this year Vikas Sathaye was part of the team that bagged the scientific and engineering award at the Oscars 2018. he got this award “for the concept, design, engineering and implementation of the Shotover K1 Camera System.” So, from an Oscar point of view, this year has had a good start.
(The author is an alumnus of FTII and currently the director of academic operations at ITASPA. He has worked as an actor in films with the likes of Anurag Kashyap, Debakar Banerji, Rohan Sippy. He is a musician, writer, cook, biker, academician and loves to explore new places)