Can Chaitanya Tamhane’s ‘The Disciple’ be India’s First Oscar Win?

Over the 63 years of us sending movies as contenders for the Best International Feature Film only 3 have been nominated and none have won. Does that make our movies inferior to those made in the west? The answer is NO, it doesn’t. But out of our 63 only 3 being nominated and none winning, does create some questions. Is there an inherent bias against our film society and culture? Or are our taste and culture so wildly different from each other that we are unable to understand each other’s way of expression? But if that is true why are western films such a commercial hit in India?

Chaitanya Tamhane is an up-and-coming force in the Indian Film Industry, with his debut film ‘Court’ being India’s official entry for the 2015 Academy Awards. His second film has started to make waves by winning the FIPRESCI Award and the Best Screenplay Award at the Venice Film Festival, the former being awarded to an Indian after 30 years. The Disciple is a front runner for being picked for India’s official entry for the Oscars.

Even if the film is picked for the Oscars, getting nominated and winning is altogether a different ball game. But with Alfonso Cuarón being the executive producer, who has 11 nominations and 4 wins at the Academy Awards under his belt, there is hope for the deeply moving Marathi film.

Even with Alfonso Cuarón at the helm, the road to winning is not going to be an easy one. One can’t just send their film for the Oscars and hope to get nominated. There is a lot of work to be done after sending in your film, an entire lobbing process has to be done called ‘For Your Consideration Campaigns’. Which is essentially bribery at this point, the voters get free perks and get to meet celebrities and have private concerts, all being sponsored by the studios. So when Indian studios send in their films, they often lack the funds and resources to run such campaigns.

Then comes the conspiracy theories about the bias against the Indian Film Industry. I don’t believe that there is a bias against just our film society, it’s for the all those film society that is different than the home industry. It might not even be a conscious bias, evolutionarily speaking our minds are wired in such a way that treats anything that is different than what we already know is bad and can be potentially dangerous, so we try to avoid anything unknown.

Moreover, there is a huge difference between the American Film Industry and our own, from the way it is structured to the storytelling practices to the audience consuming the art. In India, the larger mindset about movies is that it’s something to enjoy and have fun while watching it, although this is changing in recent years. This attitude is completed fine and correct to a certain degree, after breaking my back at my job I don’t want to watch a film that makes me question my entire existence. Rather I would like to watch something that is fun and makes me forget my real-life worries for an hour or two.

Then comes the question if the taste is so different then, why are western films a commercial success in India? The answer is quite simple, the film that wins The Best Picture Award are hardly ever commercial successes. And the majority of the commercial successes don’t get nominated. Moreover, the cause for western films to be successful in Indian is because the consumer is starting to get westernize, there is still a deep-seated belief in a huge chunk of the population is that the practices and culture of the European and American world are better than the ones that are followed at home.

But we often consider ourselves as evolved human beings, who are not held back by caveman logic and we do live in a society that is increasingly pushing us to try and experience new things. So, different should not be a problem in rationalizing which art is better (This is a very big topic, the problems with determining one piece of art better than the rest needs an entire article of its own). Then comes my final question, are we sending the movies that deserve to be nominated for Oscars?

Let’s take the example of 2019, we sent Gully Boy as our official entry to the Oscars, it’s a decent movie no doubt but not Oscar-worthy. Instead of Gully Boy, we could have sent Tumbbad, which would have better chances of getting nominated. This kind of internal politics has been more detrimental for the Indian Film Industry than any outside conspiracy.

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