Soon after Kiran Rao-directed Laapataa Ladies was declared as India’s official entry for the Oscars this year, social media got abuzz with starkly polarising viewpoints on the merits and demerits of the selection. A majority of netizens denounced the ‘biased’ approach of the jury and felt there were better films to be showcased at the top event to be held early next year.
Some feel the ‘star’ factor in Aamir Khan, whose production house funded the film, along with the Jio platform which backed it further, will help India campaign and promote the film better, which was the reason behind the selection, given the fact that the final nominations are determined through voting. Though the film became critically successful, following its release in March, it could not do great business at the box office. It focuses on two newlywed women who accidentally swap places during a train ride to their respective husbands’ homes.
Rao took to Instagram to express her “heartfelt gratitude to the selection committee and to everyone who believed in the film”. She added, “It is indeed a great privilege to be selected from among such amazing Indian films this year — who are equally worthy contenders for this honour.”
Defending the decision, jury chairperson Jahnu Barua said the panel was tasked with the duty of choosing the film that best represents India.
“The jury has to look at the right film that represents India on all fronts. Particularly, the film has to represent India’s social systems and ethos. The Indianness is very important, and Laapataa Ladies scored on that front,” he said.
According to Barua, the 13-member jury met in Chennai for 7-8 days and screened all 29 films submitted for selection, including Payal Kapadia’s Cannes winner All We Imagine As Light, Anand Ekarshi’s National Award-winning Aattam, and Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial blockbuster Animal.
“We were in constant discussion about the films, studying them, shortlisting them, and finally coming up with one name. The final discussion to reach a consensus only took half a day or so because we were constantly in conversation about the films.”
India’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 97th Academy Awards (Oscars), is the country’s fifth attempt at the coveted honour in last 70 years. Earlier four films that were sent to the competition were Mother India, Salaam Bombay, Lagaan, and the Malayalam film 2018: Everyone is a Hero on the 2018 Kerala floods, all of which failed to bag any award.
The FFI, Film Federation of India, which is behind the selections, has always been in eye of controversy over the unpredictable choices. This year too, the lack of a single woman member in the jury raised speculations.
In its citation, the FFI said Laapataa Ladies is a “film that can engage, entertain and make sense not just to women in India but also universally as well”. However, the citation too attracted criticism for its language and some typos. It begins with “Indian women are a strange mixture of submission and dominance”, and goes on to say that the film “shows you that women can happily desire to be home makers as well as rebel and be entrepreneurially inclined.”
The FFI describes itself as the “parent body of all the leading film associations of India”, with an objective to “promote, commerce in general and in particular to promote, protect and watch over the interests of the Indian Film Industry and allied industries and trades, including the interests of producers, distributors and-exhibitors of films and of all other persons connected with the film industry.”
It also aims to “popularise the film industry and its products in India and abroad”, and appoints the 13-member jury that decides which film to send to the Academy Awards. These members are “senior qualified people” from the “creative field”, according to an earlier press release.
But the arbitrariness of the whole process casts a shadow over the ability and honesty of the jury members.
The executive committee of FFI, headed by the president (currently Ravi Kottarakara), typically “invites” filmmakers to submit their cinematic works for jury evaluation.
The submissions must fit the Academy’s eligibility rules, such as the film being at least 40 minutes long and produced outside the United States of America. More than 50% of its dialogues should be in a non-English language. It should have had at least a seven-day theatrical release between November 1, 2023, and September 30, 2024.
Details of the film, its crew, and other submissions, along with a payment of Rs 1.25 lakh must be made to the FFI. In a press release, the FFI wrote, “We welcome more and more films to participate in the run to get nominated as India’s entry into Oscars this year.” It added that it will “provide all the help to the producers to have a smooth, democratic and transparent nomination process”.
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