Actor Aamir Khan’s Lagaan became the last Indian film to receive a nomination in the Best International Feature category at the Oscars. When Lagaan was nominated two decades ago, the category was known as Best Foreign Language Film. Aamir is in the running for another nomination this year, as is he Promotes the country’s official selection, Laapataa Ladies. The comedy drama is directed and produced by his ex-wife Kiran Rao.
In an interview with the BBC Asian Network, Aamir disagreed with his contemporary Shah Rukh Khan on why Indian films are struggling to garner attention at the Oscars. In an old interview, Shahrukh had said, ‘Lagan was a combination of art and commercial film. And it was an amazing film. But we have to change the format of our films. If I am invited to your party, I must dress up to the code you told me. I can’t code my two and a half hours and five songs. We have to change that.”
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Aamir replied, “No, I don’t agree. I don’t agree. Because the rent was three hours and 42 minutes. And it had six songs. And was also nominated. To receive a nomination, members must truly love your film. Lagan proves that a film with songs, which are too long, is not a problem for the Academy members. According to me, it depends on how good your work is, and how you are able to touch hearts. Members are still human at the end of the day.
Aamir said that the process of getting an Oscar nomination was not as easy as expected. He said, “People forget that this is the toughest category at the Oscars. Because when you’re competing for Best Picture, you’re competing with a limited number of films. But in the Best International Feature category, you’re actually competing with the best film from every country. Now Let’s look at India. We make a thousand films a year. You have to beat 1000 films from India. And then you are in the arena where there are 80 other films. And to be nominated in 80 films is difficult for India because there are films from Iran, Germany, the world.”
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Only three Indian films in history – Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan – have been nominated in the International Feature category. However, Indian cinema has gained attention in the last few years, with RRR winning the Best Original Song category and Elephant Whisperers winning the Best Documentary Short category. In addition, films like Writing with Fire and All the Breaths received nods in the Best Documentary Feature category, and this year Santosh, Girls Will Be Girls and films like Everyone we imagine as light is seen as a contender In a handful of categories.
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