Anurag Kashyap says ‘politics’ messes up India’s Oscar selection

Anurag Kashyap says ‘politics’ messes up India’s Oscar selection

Marathi film ‘Gondhal’, announced as India’s submission for the upcoming Oscars, has joined the ranks of ‘Homeland’, ‘Laapataa Ladies’ and others previously submitted. Although none of the films since 2001’s ‘Lagaan’ have made the shortlist for ‘Best International Feature Film’, India has consistently tried to make its submission count. In a recent interview, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap was asked why India never wins an Oscar and the director bluntly said, “Because we select absolutely wrong films.” He specified that he’s yet to watch ‘Gondhal’.

In a chat with ‘Variety India’, Anurag said that even when India had the chance to select ‘right’ films like ‘The Lunchbox’ or ‘All We Imagine As Light’, the Film Federation of India ‘messed it up’. He also alleged that both the aforementioned films were ‘deliberately’ not chosen by the FFI. When asked if the selection process was affected because of ‘too much politics’, the director said yes and added that there was a ‘lack of awareness’. He shared, “This year, the competition is really tough. It’s hard this year to beat the international entries for the Oscars.”

Anurag also discussed the probable right path for a film to get noticed on an international stage and said, “The most important qualification for eligibility should be that the film should have gone to some international festival outside India or should have had American distribution or should have had an American distributor before year-end.”

About ‘Gondhal’, he said that the film must try to get screened across various international festivals.