To date, only three Indian films have been nominated for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars.
To date, only three Indian films have been nominated for the Best International Feature Film category at the Oscars, the biggest accolade for any country that sends entries to the world’s most prestigious annual cinema awards.
These were Mehboob Khan’s 1957 epic Mother India, Mira’s Nair’s 1988 runaway hit Salaam Bombay, and Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and produced by Aamir Khan, who also played the lead in the film.
None of them won the award.
This year, there were several Indian films — including Pan Nalin’s Chhello Show (Last Film Show), which was India’s official entry for Best Picture in a Foreign Language category — in the race for the Oscars, but only RRR and two documentaries made it to the nomination stage.
While RRR missed out in the Best Picture category, it scored a nomination for Best Original Song.
Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes — about siblings Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad who rescue and treat injured birds in Delhi — made it under the Best Documentary category.
Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers was nominated in the Best Documentary Short Film category. Set in the Madumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu, the documentary is about the bond between the tribal couple Bomman and Bellie and an abandoned baby elephant.
The Indian Oscar winners, including the ones that secured it this year are:
Best Music Category (Original Song) — “Naatu Naatu” from RRR.
Best Documentary Short film — Elephant Whisperers.