Was it a
missed opportunity
when India
overlooked
The Lunchbox
and picked The
Good Road as
its Oscar entry
in the Best Foreign
Language
Film category
for 2014?
Many think
so, arguing that The Lunchbox is a better—and more
“accessible”—film. But The Good Road, which won India’s
National Award, has supporters who say it’s a
more “authentic” Indian movie. While it’s far from certain
that either film can make it to the short list, let
alone win the award—a record 76 titles were submitted
in this category—what seems predictable is the
controversy surrounding the selection process. And
it’s not just in India. There was a dust-up in China and
Japan, too, over their choice of entries. India’s Oscar
entry for 2013, Barfi, also drew criticism—but that was
because it seemed to have several plagiarized scenes.
The Good Road, India’s 46th Oscar submission, is
Gyan Correa’s debut film. It’s in Gujarati, while The
Lunchbox—Ritesh Batra’s debut film—is in Hindi. Tamil,
Bengali, Telugu, Marathi, and Malayalam movies
have also been submitted in the past.
Mehboob Khan’s Mother India was the mother of
all Indian entries, so to speak. This first submission in
1957 was nominated, but it missed winning the Oscar
by just one vote. India didn’t come that close again,
though two other films—Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay
(1988) and Amir Khan’s Lagaan (2001)—were also nominated
for the Academy Award.
Kamal Hasan appeared in seven of the submitted
films. Satyajit Ray, whose films were entered three
times, won an Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement
in 1992, shortly before he died.