Oscar Academy invited Bollywood actors, filmmakers only to fulfill a quota and increase diversity

The Academy of Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences (aka the people who give out the Oscar awards) has invited 14 Indian actors and technicians to become members. Once the members are approved, they would be eligible to vote for the Oscars.

The Indians in the class of 2017 are Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Irrfan, Deepika Padukone, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Mrinal Sen, Goutam Ghose, Sooni Taraporevala, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Arjun Bhasin, Anand Patwardhan and Amrit Pritam Dutta.

These 14 are part of the 774 new members the Academy has invited this year – a record of sorts for the institution. This is the second year in a row that they have broken their own record. In 2016, the Academy invited 683 new members.

So, what does this mean for Bollywood? Nothing.

On the surface, it might seem like Bollywood’s having a banner year but the bottom-line is that the Academy needs more people of colour. Bollywood is just filling up a quota.

Under fire for nominating all-white actors for two years in a row, the Academy in early 2016 had vowed to double the number of women and minority (read non-white) members by 2020. The Academy’s Class of 2017 represents 57 countries and is 39% female which is an increase from previous years. More importantly, 30% of the new class is people of colour, also a huge jump.

All this diversity is seen as a corrective measure after last year’s #OscarSoWhite controversy.

There are also question marks on why these 14 have been invited. While most of the Indian invitees have international films to their credit, Salman Khan’s presence on the list is baffling. Just as surprising is Mrinal Sen’s inclusion. At 94, the art-house filmmaker is just a year younger than the oldest invitee, actress Betty White.

Also, the ‘I-have-been-invited-into-the-Academy’ news is only going to fuel Bollywood’s Oscar obsession.

In the early 2000s, after Lagaan made it to the final five in Best Foreign Film category, Bollywood suddenly woke up to the (very distant) possibility of one of our films making it to the Oscar race. Every year since, a relentless debate follows the announcement of the film that’s going to represent the country in the category.

Over the years, everything from Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard to Ranbir Kapoor’s Barfi and, more recently, Chaitanya Tamhane’s fantastic Marathi film Court have represented India at the Oscars. This annual Oscar mania is odd given that only 3 films (Mother India, Salaam Bombay! and Lagaan) have been nominated, and no film has won, since the category was instituted in 1956.

A few years ago, it became fashionable for Bollywood filmmakers to boast about the Oscar library ‘inviting’ their script to be a part of the collection.

Thanks to that brief craze, the Oscar library now has the scripts for mega box office disasters like Subhash Ghai’s Yuvvraj, Vipul Shah’s Action Replayy, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish and Ashutosh Gowariker’s Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey.

Thankfully this fixation ended when it was revealed that the Margaret Herrick Library, as it’s called, accepts any script of a movie that’s been released.

I predict this invitation is going to be the new badge of honour in Bollywood.

In the next few of days, there’ll probably be a rash of interviews about ‘what an honor it is to be included’. But realistically, having Indian actors and technicians among the 7000 plus voting members of AMPAS is not going to change how we make our movies or the stories we tell.

Agreed that this is an acknowledgement of Bollywood’s importance but really, do we need Hollywood’s stamp of approval? After all, we are the world’s largest film producing country.

It’s time Bollywood got over its Hollywood fixation.