As Aamir Khan's Lagaan heads for Los
Angeles, representing India at the Oscar
awards, Shamya Dasgupta speaks to prominent members of India's cine fraternity about a wide range of concerns - Lagaan's much-questioned selection, the promotion and lobbying required to succeed at the Oscars, and the gradual diminishing of value of the Oscar itself, once the premier film award and today a medium centred on audience reactions


Lagaan - Aamir Khan and Ashutosh Gowarikar's much-hyped and much-appreciated labour of love is on its way to the Oscars now. The film did phenomenal business abroad when released commercially. Also, not insignificantly, it received merits of appreciation at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland and the Sundance Film Festival in New York.

But then the Oscars, or the Academy awards, is a different cup of tea altogether. Not many films, however appreciated and acclaimed, end up making it to the Oscars. Every filmmaking country sends entries to the Oscars every year, and we are no different. But even making it to the nominees' list, as many film-related people would vouch, is a gargantuan task. In Indian cinema, or at least cinema connected to India and Indian filmmakers, only a handful have earned the right to sit in the coveted academy hall. Gandhi (1982), an Indo-British venture directed by Richard Attenborough, made it, won great critical acclaim, as also awards for best film and best costume design (costumes were designed by Bhanu Athaiya).

Two years later, director David Lean's A Passage to India, based on the book by E M Forster flooded the list of nominations. However, in spite of Lean's stature as a director, A Passage to India only won awards in the best female lead and best original score categories. Neither were Indians.

1992, however, brought glory to India in the form of a lifetime achievement statuette for the maestro of alternative films - Satyajit Ray. Another Indian director, Shekhar Kapur, with his epic Elizabeth, received rave reviews in 1998, but an Oscar was missing.

This time around, however, the excitement that greeted Lagaan's entry is palpable, and a lot of hope is being pinned on the blockbuster Indian opus about members of an Indian village in the 1800s getting the better of their British masters in a game of cricket.

"It is a very competent film," says overseas film promoter Sunil Doshi. Film critic and organiser Aruna Vasudev gushes, "It's a fantastic movie, and qualifies as a winner even cinematically. It has a subtext that depicts a great deal of the India of those days. At the same time, the period movie aspect of it is understated and well-balanced. The movie leaves you feeling absolutely great."

Vasudev also talks about the recently-held Locarno festival, where Lagaan won the audience appreciation award. She says, "At the (Locarno) festival, when Lagaan was shown, the audience, evidently not all Indian, found it completely gripping. Everyone present enjoyed it thoroughly." That, in fact, "says it all" as far as she is concerned.

Noted poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar is also appreciative of the film, and why not? He wrote the lyrics of the chartbusting songs in the film, set to music by A R Rahman. He says, "What we need to see is whether it reaches the final list. Even being nominated is honour enough. Let's wait for the final list, and then we will think of winning. It's a good film and deserves the honour. The film is so very indigenous."

Move to the other category of filmmakers - the alternative category, and moviemakers like Shyam Benegal and Goutam Ghosh. Benegal says that he found the film "thoroughly enjoyable", and that he thought "it was a well-made film". Ghosh sounds no different, saying, "It was a very competent film, with very enjoyable sequences and a very taut storyline. I liked the film very much."

But being "enjoyable" and having a "taut storyline" is not enough to make a mark at the Oscars. The Oscars, however, have lost a lot of their sheen over the years for giving audience tastes greater importance than the choice of the critics. Like Ghosh says, "I am sorry, but I don't have too much respect for the Oscars. It is very unfortunate, but the quality of films is not what earns respect there. Go over the winners in the past few years, and you won't find one quality film. All that matters there is lobbying and pushing your product better. None of the films that have won at the Oscars are really great movies."

It is possible to contend that with the choice of Lagaan as India's entry, the federation has not gone too much for quality. Lagaan, of course, has been hailed as a quality product, but largely for audience appreciation. Overseas film-promoter and producer Sanjeev Bhargava in fact, suggests Goutam Ghosh's film Dekha as the best representative for India in the current year. Bhargava asks, "I want to know why a film like Dekha was not considered, I would even say, chosen? Is it just because the film was not a Hindi language film? It made crores of rupees in India. It was a brilliant film. I want to ask on what basis a film like Monsoon Wedding by Mira Nair was not selected."

But that's a thing of the past. Lagaan pretty much made it without a hint of controversy. Benegal says, "I know that the federation…or the members of the federation were unanimous in choosing Lagaan. So, to lay everything to rest, there was no controversy. Lagaan was the unanimous choice of the entire federation."

So with Lagaan going to the Oscars, the focus is now on its chances there, and the measures to be adopted by its distributors and promoters, to bring it to the notice of the members of the academy.

Says Vasudev, "The main thing for Lagaan is that they have to promote the film in a big way abroad before the Oscars."

Khan has already hinted that he will not lobby for his film in a big way at the Oscars, because he expects the film "to speak for itself". But that attitude won't be good enough, according to Vasudev. She says, "You have to spend at least half a million dollars on promotion alone, in order to reach anywhere at the Oscars. If Aamir Khan says that he won't spend on publicity and promotion, then he doesn't stand a chance. As far as the Oscars are concerned, the quality of the films doesn't matter as much as the amount spent on promotions matter. The jury doesn't decide the outcome, it is decided by thousands of people - the audience."

She continues, "There is a huge amount of lobbying involved, and there is no way a film can get anywhere near the nominees' list if they don't lobby. I don't like the idea, of course, but if Aamir wants to pull it off, he must follow the pattern, it is silly not to do it."

Sharing her view are Bhargava and Ghosh. Ghosh, adding to his reasons for losing all respect for the Oscars, says, "Nowadays what matters there, what really counts, are the efforts of the distributors and producers. Media hype is what wins awards. It's not a great film ceremony anymore. You have to lobby hard for your movie to succeed."

Whether Lagaan is indeed Oscar-worthy is now irrelevant. It is going to the Oscars, and that is it. But Doshi doesn't think Lagaan will be able to do much more than reach the final five at the most. He says, "To get into the nominees' list at the Oscars, it has to compete with many really good foreign films in the category. The French film Amelia is a strong contender. I don't think Lagaan can do much more. It has done well in a couple of ceremonies already, and should be satisfied with it."

Trashing the film and laughing off its chances at the Oscars completely, is critic and film historian T G Vaidyanathan. Vaidyanathan says that it was a case of "comprehensive misjudgement of the American taste" by the Indian selectors. The cricket and Brit-bashing theme, he says, won't work there, for it holds no relevance to an American audience.

Vaidyanathan says, "I don't think it has a ghost of a chance at the Oscars. The Americans know nothing of cricket. We can push our films abroad commercially - they have done well also. But to push a film like Lagaan commercially - it is like asking for the moon. No amount of publicity or promotion or lobbying can save this one. They are going to say, 'Look at these Johnnys strutting about in their white clothes!' No way. We don't stand a chance."

But people like Ghosh, Benegal and others quote the cases of A Passage to India, Gandhi and Elizabeth. If these films, bearing no resemblance to life in the US, or connected to any Americanisms, can succeed, why not Lagaan, they ask.

Filmmaker Rakesh Mehra differs with Vaidyanathan. Mehra says, "The film is about oppression, rather than cricket, and everyone identifies with that. And, of course, the Americans understand the game even if they don't play it. The movie was about cricket for us, helping it comfortably weave its way into the social fabric here. For them, it is bound to signify a different ethos."

Akhtar also find no problems with the theme of Lagaan. He says, "If women over the age of 50 get a thrill watching cricket, a game they know nothing about, then why should there be a problem in Hollywood?"

Vaidyanathan speaks of Mira Nair's much-acclaimed Monsoon Wedding, the film that recently created ripples at Venice, and gave Nair a best director's award. He says, much like Bhargava, "I think Lagaan has been chosen only because of the publicity at home. Maybe, if Monsoon Wedding were selected, it would have stood a chance. I haven't seen the movie, but going by what I have read of Monsoon Wedding, it would have given the rest of the films some stiff challenge. I have also heard that Monsoon Wedding was considered. If that is the case, I see no reason for Lagaan to be considered. I have seen Mira Nair's work and her films are recognised abroad."

Words that can't be contradicted, of course. But then the criterion seems very much to be audience appreciation. Then why not Lagaan?

In fact, scriptwriter and film critic Kamleshwar says that he would definitely have chosen Lagaan, though along with Monsoon Wedding and Asoka - the Shahrukh Khan-Santosh Sivan epic on the life of the great Indian emperor. He says, "If it were in my hands, I would divide the Oscars between Lagaan, Asoka and Monsoon Wedding. I think Lagaan stands a fair chance at the Oscars, provided it gets into the final list. It is a saga of Indian life, and has done well in the business, as well as the technical sphere."

All said and done, Lagaan, and its team of promoters and distributors, will have to pull at all stops if they are to make any impact abroad. The competition is stiff, as Doshi says, with the French film Amelia already creating ripples. If Lagaan is to contend for an award, there is no point in being "pious and virtuous", as Benegal put it. Khan and his "merry-men" will have to indulge in some big time hardsell to be noticed.