Top movie studios from the US have set up shop in India, to become part of the glorious and colourful Indian film industry. Our stars like Shah Rukh Khan are a rage even in Germany. Bollywood has made an impact worldwide, but it is too laid back in setting internal standards of excellence. We have many meaningful honours in India, but Indian cinema needs to show initiative for its own variety of peer review.The 80th Academy Awards ceremony was held on Sunday, and it still attracts an audience of over a billion people worldwide who tune in to watch this show live. Though India churns out the maximum number of films worldwide and has a mature movie industry, it’s rare for any of our films to make the coveted shortlist of five. Our own answer to the Academy Awards is the National Award, which unfortunately is run by the state, who usually end up choosing the most obscure and boring movie as the winner. The Oscars, on the other hand, are chosen by members of the parent body, all people who play an active role in filmmaking, and in the business. Not that the Oscars haven’t chosen their share of duds. Several of their Best Picture winners have been disasters. Besides a smattering of pretentious intellectuals, who remembers Driving Miss Daisy or Training Day? Yet, the Academy has managed to somehow hold on to its exclusive tag, and for an actor, it remains the ultimate honour. Also, there’s no better platform for a singer to perform and it’s the ideal location to make a fashion statement: this is where Sharon Stone sparked a rage for black Gap polo necks, and where Dame Judi Dench catapulted Indian fashion designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla to international stardom by wearing one of their creations to the Oscars. Performing at the Oscars is an honour, bestowed on a few actors and musicians. Eighty years later, the Academy is still constantly re-inventing itself to stay relevant. The red carpet at the entrance has changed to green, the Academy’s way of acknowledging climate change and the environment. At Sunday’s ceremony, American armymen based in Baghdad were the presenters for one of the awards, via satellite. It’s time the Indian film industry came together to celebrate the best of our cinema with the actors and filmmakers playing an active role in judging their peers.
