Adding up the Oscars

There are reasons to object to Academy Awards. Though contemporary in style,the statuette has a knight holding a crusaders sword.

There are reasons to object to Academy Awards (known officially as Oscars since 1939). Though contemporary in style,the statuette has a knight holding a crusaders sword. That the knight is standing on a reel of film with five spokes (actors,writers,directors,producers,technicians) is beside the point. Mexican director Emilio Fernandez posed naked as a model for the statuette. Voting by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPACS) is certified by PricewaterhouseCoopers. There is lobbying and ad campaigns are used to influence votes,one reason why the Oscars were moved from April to February,so that the time for lobbying could be shortened. Membership of AMPACS isnt in the public domain.

There are entry barriers. Unless a film has been released in Los Angeles County,California,in the preceding year,it doesnt qualify. The winner doesnt own the statuette. If a question of selling it ever arises,it has to be sold back to AMPACS for $1. However prestigious,something akin to a club or committee awards Oscars. Are there any awards,ranging from Nobels to our home-grown Padma awards,that arent inherently subjective or arent amenable to lobbying? For every awardee,we will think of those who should have got awards,but didnt. And we will also think of those who shouldnt have got awards,but did.

The box office isnt necessarily the best criterion of how good a film is. However,it does offer some indication of how the world at large judges a film. In contrast,the best picture award is based on voting by 6000-odd AMPACS members and their preferences dont necessarily mirror what the world at large thinks. In recent times,the world at large clearly endorsed Braveheart,Titanic,Shakespeare in Love,Gladiator,A Beautiful Mind and Lord of the Rings for best picture awards,but were not that enthusiastic about Chicago,Crash or No Country for Old Men. If one takes a vote on best English-language films ever,Citizen Kane,Psycho,The Shawshank Redemption,Pulp Fiction,Vertigo,2001: A Space Odyssey,Star Wars, Apocalypse Now,Fargo,Philadelphia,Goodfellas,ET,Dog Day Afternoon,Bonnie and Clyde,The Graduate,Some Like It Hot and Goodbye Mr Chips will figure on many lists. But these didnt win best picture awards,some werent even nominated. No one can deny subjectivity. Nor can one deny preferences and biases of 6000-odd voters,influenced by lobbying.

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India now produces the largest number of feature films in the world,with 1164 films in 2007. The US was second with 453,Japan third with 407 and China fourth with 402. Oscars arent the summum bonum of film success. But surely India should do better there,and move beyond the foreign-film category. Satyajit Rays was a special award. Other than this,in the contested category,we have a win by Bhanu Athaiya (with John Mollo) for costume design in Gandhi and nominations for Mother India,Lagaan,The Sixth Sense and Elizabeth.

Slumdog Millionaire is certain to change that. This doesnt make Slumdog a better picture than Taare Zamin Par,nor does it mean there havent been several Indian films (in multiple languages) better than Slumdog. More than the product,success is also about packaging,presentation and marketing. Were there no beautiful women in India between 1966 (Reita Faria) and 1994 (Aishwarya Rai,Sushmita Sen)? As with Venezuela,we learnt the marketing trick. Of course,Slumdog reinforces and caters to a clichéd Indian image. Thats the reason one needed a Danny Boyle,to recognise demand and amend supply accordingly.

Why must we bristle at portrayals of poverty? Maturity means taking things in ones stride. Dharavi and poverty are part of Indian life. They are depicted ad nauseam in Indian films. We should be able to handle it if a foreigner comes along and does it. Did the British create a clamour when Shekhar Kapur portrayed the Virgin Queen as other than a virgin? For the 2009 Oscars,it is no longer global tender. We can debate whether Slumdog should be called an Indian film,but this will be Indias best record at AMPACS ever. And this will leave positive externalities and multiplier benefits for the future. In beauty contests and Booker Awards,there is a snowball-like tendency and the film industry is no different. Slumdog is also about globalisation.

The writer is a Delhi-based economist

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