Marathi film Gondhal, which has been announced as India’s submission for the upcoming Oscars, has joined the ranks of Homeland, Laapataa Ladies, and others that have previously been 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 manages to win an Oscar, and the director bluntly said, “Because we select absolutely wrong films.” He specified that he is yet to watch Gondhal.

All We Imagine As Light was ‘deliberately’ not chosen

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.

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‘NFDC should have a purpose’

He added that the lack of international screenings or American distributors can severely affect a film’s chances of success at the Oscars. “That has to be the first step, or all the money spent on screenings or advertising is a waste,” he said and added that since IFFI (International Film Festival of India) is a recognised festival, and following Gondhal’s win there, the NFDC (National Film Development Corporation of India) must submit it to international festivals for exposure.

He added that since filmmakers might not be very aware of this process, NFDC must take charge here as they anyway attend many festivals. “NFDC goes to every festival to set up a market without purpose. They should have a purpose to push the films that haven’t premiered outside the country to actually apply for festivals and not just play at the market,” he said.

Why Gondhal was chosen over Main Vaapas Aaunga?

Vivek Vaswani, who was a member of the 14-person jury panel from FFI that chose Gondhal, shared with that were given “very clear instructions” about the kind of film they had to select. He said, “The film has to represent Indian culture and tradition in such a way that it has global appeal. So we’re talking about a film that is Indian and global. This one was,” he said.

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He also said that Imtiaz Ali’s film Main Vaapas Aaunga and Naga film, Angh, were also favourites. He shared that they did not choose Imtiaz’s film because of its India-Pakistan storyline. “We thought anything to do with India-Pakistan may not resonate with the audience in America. I mean, it’s like Israel sending an anti-Palestine film,” he said, but quickly added, “The important thing is that Main Vaapas Aaunga talked about the trauma of war. It was not an anti-Pakistan film. It was not an anti-India film. It was a very sensitive film, the way only Imtiaz Ali can do. But it didn’t get enough votes from the jury.” For Angh, he said that the film got 11 out of 14 votes.

In the same chat, Vivek was asked about Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar but he mentioned that the film only got 4 out of 14 votes and the members thought that it “wasn’t Oscar material.”