Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy has been selected as India’s official entry in the International Feature Film category at the Oscars this year. Although, Indian Film Industry witnessed some of the best films in 2019, FFI decided to send Gully Boy to the Oscars.
Brilliant films like Andhadhun, Article 15, Uri-The surgical strike, Kesari, Badla, Tumbaad and The Tashkent files were also in the list. Well, it is truly surprising that when films like Andhadhun and Kesari were in contention a film like Gully Boy was nominated for Oscars.
But the jury claimed that the energy of the movie Gully Boy was “infectious”.
Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhat starrer Gully boy is directed by Zoya Akhtar who has earlier directed movies like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Dil Dhadakne Do.
The movie is based on a final year college student who lives Dharavi slums and has an abusive father. Not to forget, in 2009, Slumdog Millionaire was sent to Oscars and the movie shows India as a poor and backward country. Suprisingly, both the movies tend to highlight the poverty aspect of the country.
It is a known fact that movies tend to exaggerate the issues to create an impact on the audience. Gully Boy is one such movie. It is also a copy of the movie “8 mile”. It is shocking that the so called “jury” failed to notice this.
Not to forget, the head of the jury is Bengali director and former actress Aparna Sen, who along with 48 other celebrities wrote a letter to PM Modi to stop the alleged lynching of minorities in India.
Talking about the selection of the movie for Oscars she said “The process was democratic. We took a long time and discussed the films threadbare. Each person was asked to write down three films in order of preference. After that we took a vote, we discussed the films and then we arrived at one film, and that is ‘Gully Boy’. The energy of the film was infectious,”
The film shows a negative image of India to the world though India is far from being called a backward Nation. But what more can you expect from the jury headed by Aparna Sen, who has constantly disrespected the PM of our Nation and is known for her leftist comments.
This is not the first time; the jury has a history of making silly decisions when it comes to sending movies to Oscars. In 1998, the jury surprised the entire Nation by sending “Jeans” a Tamil comedy film to Oscars while Ram Gopal Varma’s “Satya” was in the line.
The jury of Gautham Ghose, who was also one among the 48 celebrities who wrote a letter to PM Modi, sent Gujarati film “ The Good Road” to the Oscars while the Nation was expecting “The Lunchbox” to be sent.
That is not it, even the Netizens slammed the decision of the jury.
One of the Twitter users wrote, “Kinda disappointed with our Oscar entry. Gully boy is a good movie but other shortlisted films like kesari, badla, andhadhun and article 15 were much much better IMO (In my opinion) (sic).” Another user pointed out that, “Why din’t they send Article 15 or Andhadhun . Gully Boy is 8 mile rip off and 8 mile has already won Oscars (Sic).”
Sources claim that, Aparna Sen kept her own agenda at the top and ignored the eligibility aspect.
Also India till date has never won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film, also it has been only nominated 3 times which includes ‘Mother India’, ‘Lagaan’ and ‘Salaam Bombay.’
On the other hand, South Indian films are often ignored while sending movies to Oscars. It is said that, India has been sending entries to the Oscars since 1957, and majority of the films are Hindi. Of the 52 entries so far, only 20 are in languages other than Hindi.
Although many South Indian films make a splash internationally, it fails to be recognized by the Bollywood dominated jury.
Well, nothing will change if pseudo secular people like Aparna Sen and Gautham Ghose are given the authority to decide which Indian films will be sent to Oscars.
Sharanya Alva
