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After Zoya Akhtar's Gully Boy was announced as India's official entry to the Oscars a few days ago, the cheers were as fierce as the criticism. A common complaint online was that it wasn't really the best film India produced this past year. Others countered that it wasn't necessarily the best film, but one mostly likely to at least bag an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film that is usually the country's official selection. This year, Gully Boy is up against strong contenders such as Bong Joon-ho's Parasite (South Korea), Pedro Almodóvar's Pain And Glory (Spain) and Marco Bellocchio's The Traitor (Italy).
Here are 5 things you should know about how Indian films are selected for the Oscars:
It's not about the best film
What kind of film has Oscar potential? One that will be seen by the 6,500 Academy members, which involves vast amounts of money being pushed into the Oscar campaign, a lot of clout and networking needed to grab eyeballs. We spoke to someone privy to the Film Federation of India's selection process who said the fact that director Zoya Akhtar and costume designer Arjun Bhasin are Academy members boosted the film's chances over Super Deluxe and Article 15, which were the two next closest contenders. Other things the Academy loves – stories set in the Indian slums, featuring underdogs and a crackling soundtrack. All of which are the ingredients of Gully Boy.
However, every film submitted, both arthouse and extremely commercial, is considered. This year, Kesari, Badhaai Ho and Andhadhun were also in the running. Still, winning a National Award or crossing the Rs 100-crore mark at the box office is no indicator of selection.
It's an expensive gamble
It's up to producers to decide whether to submit the film to the Film Federation of India. The submission fee is around a lakh, including taxes. (Rs70,000 plus 18% tax). More expensive still is waging the Oscar campaign once your film becomes India's official selection. In 2017, director Vetri Maaran told Film Companion that campaigning for Visaranai was more expensive than getting it made. "It starts with finding a place to live in for those two months of promotions. The first thing you need to do is get a PR who specializes in foreign-language Oscar films. It's essential to your campaign. There are two or three big names. Fredell Pogodin is the best. There's another person called Bumble who is also a good PR…You start talking, they say $15,000 for promotions till it is shortlisted. If it's shortlisted, another $5,000. If it's nominated, another $5,000. Hollywood is all about wine and dine. You don't eat lunch, you do lunch. Pre-breakfast meeting, breakfast meeting, post-breakfast meeting – that's how they live. This wine and dine is an integral part of LA. We hired a beautiful villa where we could have parties and invite people to spread the word. Putting out ads in Variety and The Hollywood Reporter (is the norm). Two centrespreads cost $32,000. We did four. People started looking at these ads and saying: Okay these are guys with some money from India. Let us give them some credibility."