Know why Indian films find it difficult to qualify in Oscar race

The 91st Oscars are months away, but the saddest fact is that only six movies declared eligible to contend for Best Picture from India. It's really astonishing that a country which makes around 1800movies every year, which is almost half of the total movies made around the world fail so miserably in the Oscar race. So far, a few movies Slumdog Millionaire, Life of Pi and Gandhi have resulted in Indians winning Oscars. But that too was conceptualized, produced and directed by Non-Indians. Sohan Roy, Hollywood director and Founder Director of Aries group and Indywood, explaining why Indian films find it difficult to qualify in Oscar race.

Under the foreign film category of Oscar, "Best Foreign Language Film" is the only category for foreign filmmakers. The entry to this category is just one per country and is recommended by the film federation/film apex body of the country. But under the mainstream category of Oscar, any filmmaker can send their entries. There are around 26 category competitions under this including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and so on. For the contention, the movie should primarily go through a series of qualification criteria including Los Angeles Screening for 7 consecutive days and if it is not in English language, it should have English subtitles. An Oscar campaign is said to cost approx $3 million to $10 million which includes mass PR campaign and publicity generation through adverts, holding lobbying parties at LA, New York and the film's parent country, sending out screeners to Oscar jury members, special review reports / critic reviews in some famous film journals and publications etc. While Hollywood movies are funded by big studios who undertake the above-mentioned tasks for their respective movies publicity campaign for them, for an Indian movie to cough up such a large amount may not be a financial favorable option.

There are specialized services firms like Indywood's All Lights Film Services having the full-fledged team and industry affiliations to screen the movies in LA and carry out other necessary documentation. Some of the movies such as Ballad of Rustom, Kamasutra 3D, Pulimurugan, DAM 999 and Color of Sky have benefited by such services. Besides conducting rigorous campaigns to help movies get into the very prestigious 'Oscar Race', such firms help filmmakers to take their movies to film festivals, film markets and film awards around this world. The pitch of services by such firms is not to let any film go unnoticed in film circuits.

"Most the filmmakers and crews failing here as the documentation part is more important. Hence our team is providing all the necessary assistance to them for a smooth race", says Sohan Roy of Indywood. This year, Indian movies such as Dear Molly (English film Directed by Gajendra Ahire), Sound Story (Directed by Prasad Prabhakar), Kayamkulam Kochunni (Directed by Rosshan Andrews), Aickarakkonathe bhishaguaranmaar (Directed by Biju Majeed) are making their way to Oscar race through Indywood. Besides Sarpatatwam (the serpent wisdom) by Methil Devika is contended for the documentary short category.