The Academy Award nominations were announced and, since it's Oscar time, a little history is in order. Bollywood is the worlds largest producer of films and has a long and very rich history. So how many Oscars does Bollywood have under its belt ? What films, actors, actresses, and technical awards has this most prolific of industries claimed at the Academy Awards in its history? It turns out that the answer is not a lot has ever been won by the Indian film Industry at Oscar time.
Starting with the big award Best Foreign Language Film, India has only had 3 nominees. In 1958 Mehboob Khan's legendary film Mother India lost to Federico Fellini's The Nights of Cabiria by one vote. This is the closest India has has ever came to winning the award. Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! was nominated in 1988 and Ashutosh Gowarkir's Lagaan in 2002. All three fims lost in this category. The website SatyajitRay which is devoted to India's most famous director states that Ray won a Lifetime Acheivement Award in 1992. None of his films ever got nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
The Indian film industry has been so ignored by the Academy that all of it's wins can be summed up easily. Five people have won six Academy Awards. The list started with costume designer Bhanu Athaiya who became the first Indian to win an Oscar for her costumes in 1983 in Ghandi. The great director Satyajit Ray is the only Indian ever to win an honorary Oscar. A.R Rahman is the only Indian to win more than one Oscar. The TimesofIndia says that Rahman is a music composer, singer-songwriter, producer and musician. He is the owner of 3 Oscars all for the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack. In 2009 the popular film won staues for A.R Rahman in Best Original Score and Song categories.The list is completed by Gulzar and Reshul Pookutty. Both men worked on the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack . There hasn't been a lot of attention from the Academy Awards given to Indian film. In comparison France and Italy have a 26 Oscar wins just in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Could it be that the Academy is a little to Euro-centric?
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