Is India’s Oscars entry legitimate?

Choosing the correct film for the Oscars entry is always a task as India has never managed to win an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category and also has only been to the final round twice in all these years. Thus, every time the Film Federation of India decides to send a film to the Oscars, it is heavily speculated on whether the film is worthy enough to go to the Oscars. While several decisions are hailed, many times, they are criticised. A similar incident happened with this year’s Oscar entry of India. ‘Chhello Show’ which is India’s official Oscar entry has been severely criticised for not meeting the proper criteria required.

The Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), is the Mother Body of 31 crafts functioning in the Film/ TV/ Web/ Ads Industry. They have raised questions on the legitimacy of the entry and requested a probe into the matter. Their official statement reads, “We at FWICE have observed that this year’s nomination of the film ‘Chhello Show’ as India’s Official Entry to the 95th Oscar Award is not as per the usual norms and has therefore created a lot of doubts and issues we thought of raising. We strongly feel that the selection process was not thoroughly followed. We have nothing against the producers and makers of the film which has been nominated but at the same time, the real successors of this award cannot be left in dilemma.”

According to the FWICE ‘Chhello Show’ is primarily produced by foreign studios and most of the crew is also from foreign countries. Its major producers Orange Studios are foreign studios. Hence, they raise the question of how a foreign film could be India’s official entry.

They further stated that this film has been on their site for a few years. It’s only recently some Indian companies did a deal for this film for its Indian release. Hence, the question remains how could a previously released film that was recently distributed in India become its official entry?

Another problem that arose with the film was that there are some very serious allegations that it was inspired/copied from the Oscar-winning 1988 film, ‘Cinema Paradiso’. The similarities between the synopsis and poster of both films also do not help. India had to face humiliation the last time when Gully Boy was rejected by the Oscars after drawing similarities with 8MM.

Also, the film was released in 2021, hence it being the official entry for Oscars 2022 is also a very questionable decision by the FFI. In an official statement given by the chairman of the jury, TS Nagabharana, the film was considered for the Oscars, last year as well. Hence, how a film could be given to the Oscars twice is a question of the legitimacy of FFI’s decision.