In March this year, Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies released in the theatres and received wide acclaim, both critical and commercial. And now, it became India's official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards, to be held next year. That the film was exceptionally on point was clear right from the start - the narrative around the Purdah system was beautifully depicted via the journeys of two newlywed women who accidentally swap places during a train ride to their respective husbands' homes.
This film, backed by ace actor Aamir Khan's production house, was selected among a line-up of 29 other equally interesting and poignant films, with strong messaging and a deep sense of aesthetics. This list included Payal Kapadia's Cannes winner All We Imagine as Light, Anand Ekarshi's national award winning Aattam and Sandeep Reddy Vanga's controversial, Animal.
So, what exactly was the criteria upon which Rao's film was selected over the others? How do films get selected to represent the country at the Oscars? The process goes like this: The executive committee headed by FFI President – Ravi Kottarakara at present – invites works by filmmakers for evaluation by a 13-member jury that involves people from "the creative field." At present, the jury is headed by filmmaker Jahnu Barua. The film undergoes the preliminary round that ensures that it is in line with the eligibility criteria as set by the Academy. This means that the film must be at least 40 minutes long, must be produced outside the United States, must have its dialogues in any non-English language, and must have had at least a seven-day long theatrical release.
Additionally a payment of Rs 1.25 lakh confirms and completes the submission process. The final decision as to which film will be selected for representing India at the Academy is decided by way of a vote after everyone on the jury has watched all the films that have come in. Accordingly, the FFI mentioned in its citation that they found Laapata Ladies to be representative of India's social systems and ethos and one that can engage, entertain and make sense not just to women in India but universally as well.
So far, three Indian films have made it to the final nominations: Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988), Lagaan (2001). Last year, the Malayalam film 2018: Everyone is a Hero was India's official entry. The film is based on the Kerala floods that caused massive destruction in the state that year.
However, for years, critics and researchers have commented on the “failure of Hindi cinema to bag the Oscars on their own merit” and question why India's Hindi film industry finds it unable to bag the Academy award despite churning out so many films year after year. "India makes around 2000 movies per annum, which is almost half of the total movies made around the world. In spite of being the highest producer of films in the world, no Indian movie has yet won the much coveted award, other than Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, but that was not directed by an Indian filmmaker," says Abhijit Ghosh, an academic researcher from Lovely Professional University.
Another most commonly cited reason is the "total lack of marketing efforts towards promoting the film at the Oscars." "This is important because it is not humanly possible for each voter to watch each and every film that has been submitted, and so if promoted correctly, your film stands a chance to be viewed and then evaluated. This is what happened with All that Breathes, the film that went on to bag multiple awards a year back," say experts. Samarth Mahajan, the filmmaker who made Borderlands, had earlier shared with THE WEEK that one of the most important ways to get people to watch your film and evaluate it for any award category is to market the film well so that they are aware of its existence and presence. Hopefully, this will change in time to come.