'Our Oscar selection is racist'

An award is as good as it's juryOne could judge a film only if one is equipped to understand the craft. Oscars have a certain technical standard when it comes to the jury. It's the Academy awarding the industry; peers judging their own contemporaries. Oscars may not be the most authentic one every time yet their strike rate is pretty high. A small film like Good Night, and Good Luck qualified for nominations in six categories including Best Motion Picture only because the Academy recognises the value and talent seeded in such films. Though Academy's discretion is not unquestionable at times. It's an old story how Citizen Kane now taught in film schools, never won an Oscar for Best Picture or Direction. Yet, Academy won't award a film that doesn't understand its craft. That's precisely why one can't ignore the Oscars. Filmmakers who look for real recognition will always value Oscars. Why do you think Aamir Khan doesn't attend any of our home awards but goes for Oscars? Un-fortunately for a nation as glamour struck as India the only thing that charms the majority about the Oscars is their American stamp.Our awards are only a mockeryTake any popular film award in India, it's headed by a jury that's completely film illiterate and absolutely star smitten. Our judges are such madcaps that they completely succumb to the populist cinema and box office success instead of acknowledging talent.If I ask someone today how they rate a Rajendar Kumar or a Manoj Kumar as an actor, he or she would laugh. But for our moms or grand moms these Kumars were stars. So they deserved to be nominated and awarded. Similarly the coming generations will laugh at those who you or I think are our favorite stars. Our current awards are completely stardom driven.They should rather be called blockbuster awards not film awards!Look at Raja Hindustani, which not just won the Best Film award at Filmfares but also the Best Original Screenplay award when everyone knew it was a copy of our own Jab Jab Phool Khiley! Who are we fooling at our awards?The year Hazaar Khwaishein Aisi came, Black was declared the Best Film not just in the Popular Awards category but the Critic's Choice as well. Hazaar Khwaishein Aisi wasn't even considered worthy enough of being mentioned. Aziz Mirza and Manisha Kiorala, the revered Jury members rather chose Black which was a copy of The Miracle Worker in a hammy sort of way. That's why I say these are anything but film awards!Bollywood is full of arrogant empty headsBollywood at its best is only a variety entertainment programme production industry. Only money and clout speak. Talent and potential get lost in the barrage of popular cinema. Only those who can afford to build gaudy, cheap bungalows that resemble a cheap movie set, get to call the shots in this industry. In our industry's belief system the biggest hit becomes the best. Look at Om Shanti Om. It's a copy of Karz which in itself was a copy of Reincarnation of Peter Proud. We are making copies of copies then one day we turn around to say don't call us Bollywood, that smacks of subservience to Hollywood. Really! I say we deserve to be called Bollywood only.Our own racism causes India's Oscars failureWe are too supercilious to choose a good, small film in front of a big, second rate film. Why do we have to debate only between a Paheli or a Black? In one word, our industry is racist. This north Indian racism is undermining our talent. Why can't we look beyond? Although the year we decided to look beyond, we chose Jeans. I think we have completely lost it. FFI broke my heartThe Film Fedration of India jury can only choose from the films already short-listed by the FFI. Being a jury member this time, the first thing that I asked was why didn't we have a single Malayalam film short-listed? I was told that those film directors don't have enough money to get their films subtitled. Now isn't that both ridiculous and appalling? Why can't FFI get their films subtitled? We ourselves disrespect our talent. Our Oscars tally would have looked so much better only if we had acknowledged Ray's talent. I have been here for last 25 years and I know people who laugh at Ray. We are repeating our mistake and ignoring the talent of such heavyweights like Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Time we rewarded our own small filmsThere's no dearth of good independent cinema in India, cinema that doesn't always cave into the irrational pressures of populist taste and the economy of blockbusters. Just that, these films are not able to rub shoulders with megastarrrer, multi-crore budget films and are forced to pale into insignificance due to lack of adequate recognition.I, with like minded fellow filmmakers, am spearheading a movement to re-define excellence in cinema. As part of a group called Indian Independent Filmakers, we are planning to start our own film festival and awards that will appreciate and reward films which dare to step out of the hackneyed formulae that Bollywood seems to have mastered. Small or big won't be a cirtierion, good cinema will be the bottomline.We will have a truly international jury comprising of filmmakers from all over the world. For once I am sure I would be able to say with confidence " May the best film win"!