Will any Indian movie win an Oscar in the near future?

India is the producer of the largest number of movies in the world. Despite this, our movies have featured amongst the nominees of Best Foreign film category only thrice. India's first ever entry to the Oscars, Mother India got the nomination for the best foreign film, but couldn't win it at the Academy members didn't like the ending. Thereafter, a long wait of 31 years ensued. Salaam Bombay, a movie based on the miserable lives of street kids of Bombay, was the next to feature in the category. It was unlucky to lose out. And, we all know about legendary Lagaan which lost out to No man's land. One which we thought would break the shackles and bring us an Oscar, RDB didn’t even make the final cut.

There is no denying the fact that majority of movies made in India are not worth a watch, but the same can't be said about the Indian cinema of 50's and 60's with greats like Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal and many others .Satyajit Ray won the Oscar for “Lifetime achievement in Cinema”, but it is ironic that none of his movies were found good enough by the Academy to even be nominated.

This leads me to think that the perception of the world about India is still that of a third world country. Because movies that have made it to the final list of nominees - Mother India, Lagaan and Salaam Bombay - depict India as a third world country or a backward state. Perhaps that’s the reason why a movie like Rang de Basanti failed to get make the grade.

Shekhar Kapoor had once said that it all depends on market dynamics, India is not a market for Hollywood movies, so it won't be getting any Oscars. I don’t buy this line of reasoning. Because small movies from Algeria have also won at the Oscars, surely we are a bigger market for Hollywood than them. The problem then lies somewhere else.

Most of the films that are sent through are Hindi films whereas there are a lot of good regional movies as well which deserve attention. In the last 10 years, there has been only 1 non-hindi movie that was sent, Shwaas. The selection jury must ensure that the best piece of cinema from the industry makes the cut, not just the largest Hindi magnum-opus of that year.

Another crucial factor that places Hindi movies on a disadvantage is the lobbying or lack thereof. Promotions and media coverage does affect the opinions and preconceptions of the jury. Alas, this requires large sums of money that most of the times Indian entrants are not willing to commit. Movies like Shwaas are made on small budgets, hence do not have the wherewithal to spend the amounts on promotion as foreign flicks do. But even a large spend does not ensure a success, Amir Khan spent more than a million dollars to promote Lagaan to no avail.

So I am led to believe that Indian movies are perhaps just not good enough. Over the years the technical production has improved so we think that our movies have become world class. We conveniently forget that many of the movies lack content. What we need for an Oscar are some serious film makers who know their art. What we need are two words that are unfashionable today: sincerity and honesty. One ingredient required for a successful international movie is sincerity of the film maker, not making too many compromises for commercial success. Each frame should be a work of art and the story should be told as it happens. If we look at the Oscar winners of the past we cannot deny that most of them broke new grounds in cinema. None of our movies do that, they are made specifically keeping the mass audience in mind, hence they depend on gimmickry to make the films succeed.

We are living in a fool’s paradise when we say that our creations merit an Oscar. So when Amitabh Bachhan says that Indian films should not aspire to win the Oscar, that they require an Oscar to certify them as being good, was offensive to him, I cannot help but thinking him of a sore loser. Perhaps then he can downgrade the reputation of the Oscars as well by shedding light on its origins, that they were devised as a publicity stunt to promote sagging box office figures in the US in and around March. Sad but true.