India at the Oscars: A Look at the Variety of Films Submitted for Academy Awards

Director Satyajit Ray has represented India three times for Best Foreign Language Film - the most by any director in India. Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy  is considered a milestone in Indian cinema and listed among the greatest films of all time. 

Despite the international awards and accolades for The Apu Trilogy, his films never received an Academy Awards Oscar nomination. At the 64th Academy Awards in 1992, he was awarded an Honorary Oscar "in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures, and of his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world." Later than year he was posthumously awarded the Akira Kurosawa Award for Lifetime Achievement in Directing at the San Francisco International Film Festival; it was accepted on his behalf by actress Sharmila Tagore.

India produces more than 1000 films each year - nearly double Hollywood's output. Out of all these, the Film Federation of India determines which one film should be selected to represent the country at the Oscars.

Over the years, India has submitted a wide variety of unique films for Oscar consideration in a variety of languages from various studios around the country.

From dramas to love stories to comedies to historical epics, some of the films sent to the Academy were pathbreaking in their topics and content or dealt with ongoing socio-political issues. Only three films today were actually nominated for an Oscar (highlighted in yellow).

Which films do you think were Oscar-worthy?
Which films should have been nominated?
What other films should have been submitted?

Leave your comments below.

1957 - Mother India - Hindi. Working in the fields to alleviate his young family's poverty widow Radha (Nargis) is left raise her sons through many trials and tribulations. Despite the struggles, she sticks to her own moral code.	1958 - Madhumati - Hindi. Anand (Dilip Kumar) learns of his ill-fated, star-crossed and tragic romance with Madhumati (Vyjayantimala) in a previous birth and how those events are going to affect him in this lifetime.
1959 - Apur sansār ("The World of Apu") - Bengali. When his old school friend takes Apu Roy (Soumitra Chatterjee) him on a trip to a family wedding, surprising circumstances end in Apu marrying the bride, Aparna (Sharmila Tagore).	1962 - Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam ("The Master, The Wife, and Slave") - Hindi. Servant Bhootnath (Guru Dutt) befriends the wife of an unfaithful employer and watches her attempts to woo back her wayward husband.
1963 - Mahanagar ("Metropolis" or "The Big City") - Bengali. Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee) takes a job as a door-to-door saleswoman and quickly becomes her firm's top salesperson. When her husband loses his job, the power dynamic in the family begins to shift.	1965 - Guide - Hindi. Tour guide, Raju (Dev Anand), encourages Rosi (Waheeda Rehman) to leave her destructive and confining marriage. After a stint in jail, Raju ends up in a remote village temple where he finds himself elevated to the position of a holy man.
1966 - Amrapali - Hindi. In this historical film, Samrat Ajaatshatru of Magadh (Sunil Dutt) emerges victorious at the end of all battles but when he falls in love with Amrapali (Vyjayanthimala), his life is changed forever.	1967 - Aakhri Khat ("The Last Letter") - Hindi. Govind (Rajesh Khanna) falls in love with Lajjo (Indrani Mukherjee) and have a child. When they separate, Lajjo dies, leaving a letter and a lost toddler wandering the streets of Mumbai.
1968 - Majhli Didi ("Elder Sister") - Hindi. Young orphan boy Kishen is treated as a servant by his step sister but finds support through another source.	1969 - Deiva Magan ("Divine Son") - Tamil. A lawyer (Sivaji Ganesan) with a scarred face is separates his twin sons when one of his sons inherits his facial flaw.
1971 - Reshma Aur Shera - Hindi. Reshma (Waheeda Rehman) and Shera (Sunil Dutt) love each other in the midst of a violent feud between their clans.	1972 - Uphaar - Hindi. Law student Anoop marries Minoo who has no household skills, is not educated and is not mature enough to understand her relationship with Anoop. When the time comes to return to Calcutta, Anoop asks Minoo to come with him but she refuses.
1973 - Saudagar - Hindi. Poor jaggery seller Moti (Amitabh Bachchan) marries, then divorces, widow Mahjubhi (Nutan) who helped him earn enough money to pay dowry expenses. After he marries Phoolbanu, Moti's business takes a beating without Mahjubhi.	1974 - Garam Hawa ("Scorching Winds") - Urdu. In post-partition India, Muslim businessman Salim Mirza (Balraj Sahani) and his family struggle for their rights in a country which was once their own.
1977 - Manthan ("The Churning") - Hindi. Young veterinary doctor Dr. Rao (Girish Karnad) his team grapple with village politics and rigid casteism to form a daily milk cooperative that benefits the farmers.	1978 - Shatranj Ke Khilari ("The Chess Players") - Hindi; Urdu. Two obsessive chess players fail to notice British rule extending into their Indian province in 1856.
1980 - Payal Ki Jhankaar - Hindi. Shyama (Komal Mahuvakar) is an orphan living with her strict and cruel uncle and aunt. Her passion is dancing, which she pursues with the help of a young man named Gopal.	1984 - Saaransh ("The Gist") - Hindi. A married couple (Anupam Kher, Rohini Hattangadi) rent out a room to a young woman as they grapple with grief and financial strife in the wake of their son's murder.
1985 - Saagar - Hindi. Fisherman Raja (Kamal Hasaan) is secretly in love with Mona (Dimple Kapadia). When wealthy Ravi (Rishi Kapoor) comes to live with his grandmother, Kamladevi, he sees Mona and falls in love with her.	1986 - Swati Mutyam ("A White Pearl") - Telugu. Shivaiah (Kamal Haasan), an innocent and good natured person, marries a young widow with a 5-year old son. Years later with his grandchildren at his side, he looks back on his life and marriage.
1987 - Nayakan ("The Hero") - Tamil. It is based on the real-life Bombay underworld don Varada aka Varadarajan Mudaliar, and sympathetically depicts the struggle of South Indians living in Mumbai.	1988 - Salaam Bombay! - Hindi. 11-year-old Krishna (Shafiq Syed) is sent to a traveling circus to earn money to pay for the bike's repairs, but soon winds up in the streets of Mumbai's poorest slums.
1989 - Parinda ("The Bird") - Hindi. Brothers Kishen (Jackie Shroff) and Karan (Anil Kapoor) live in Mumbai. Karan leaves India to attend school in America. Kishen enters into a life of crime, falling under the sway of Anna (Nana Patekar), a dangerous drug dealer.	1990 - Anjali - Tamil. Born mentally ill and with a terminal illness, young Anjali (Shamili) continues to show compassion to those around here despite the treatment meted out to her by her family and neighbors.
1991 - Henna - Hindi; Urdu. A woman (Zeba Bakhtiar) falls in love with an amnesiac (Rishi Kapoor) after saving him from drowning.	1992 - Thevar Magan ("Son of Thevar") - Tamil. The urbane son of a village chieftain struggles between his personal aspirations and those of his family.
1993 - Rudaali - Hindi. A professional mourner (Dimple Kapadia) who cannot cry faces a life of hardship.	1994 - Bandit Queen - Hindi. This biographical film focuses on the life of Phoolan Devi (Seema Biswas), a revered criminal who eventually went on to become a politician.
1995 - Kuruthipunal ("River of Blood") - Tamil. Police officers fight a terror group in India.	1996 - Indian - Tamil. After his daughter's tragic death, a freedom fighter steps up his war against corruption.
1997 - Guru - Malayalam. Situations turn a man, who believes in secularism, into an extremist. He plots to bomb a monastery, where the survivors of a riot take refuge.	1998 - Jeans - Tamil. Vishu and Ramu are a pair of Indian twins living in America with their father, Rajamani. Madhumita (Aishwarya Rai) plays the part of twins to fulfill their father's wish that his sons marry twin sisters.
1999 - Earth - Hindi. It's 1947 and the borders between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl bears witnesses to tragedy as her maid is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.	2000 - Hey Ram! - Tamil; Hindi. This fictional, but extremely powerful, Indian drama tells the story of Saketh Ram (Kamal Hassan), a disillusioned man who tries to kill Mohandas Gandhi (Naseeruddin Shah).
2001 - Lagaan ("Land Tax" or "Taxation") - Hindi; English. In 1893, a game of cricket between Indian villagers and the British and will determine whether the poor local farmers will have to pay a heavy land tax. Problem is, cricket is completely foreign to India.	2002 - Devdas - Hindi. Devdas (Shah Rukh Khan) makes his way back home to India after spending 10 years studying in London. When Paro (Aishwarya Rai), his childhood best friend, marries another man, the despondent Devdas descends into life-threatening alcoholism.
2004 - Shwaas ("Breath of Hope") - Marathi. A man's grandson has to undergo an operation that will render him blind. As the date of the operation looms near, Vichare struggles to find a way to tell the boy the horrible truth.	2005 - Paheli ("Riddle") - Hindi. The day of her wedding, a ghost (Shah Rukh Khan) falls in love with Lachchi (Rani Mukherjee) and offers to take the form and place of her husband Kishanlal after he goes away on business for five years.
2006 - Rang De Basanti ("Color it Saffron") - Hindi. After the tragic death of a friend due to government corruption, a listless group of college graduates involved in a film about freedom fighters are inspired to take action.	2007 - Eklavya: The Royal Guard - Hindi. Prince Harshwardhan (Saif Ali Khan) discovers that his birth father is Eklavya (Amitabh Bachchan), a royal guard with legendary aim, who is being targeted for death by King Jaywardhan (Boman Irani) and his vile brother (Jackie Shroff).
2008 - Taare Zameen Par ("Like Stars on Earth") - Hindi. A teacher (Aamir Khan) and a boy (Darsheel Safary) with learning disabilities share a special bond.	2009 - Harishchandrachi Factory - Marathi. In 1913 India's cinema industry is born from Dadasaheb Phalke's efforts to make Raja Harishchandra, India's first feature-length B&W silent film.
2010 - Peepli Live - Hindi. When he learns that the Indian government supplies hefty payouts to the families of farmers who kill themselves, Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri) arrives at a unique solution to his financial predicament: suicide. Word spreads and a media circus ensues.	2011 - Adaminte Makan Abu ("Abu, Son of Adam") - Malayalam. Abu and Aisumma, an elderly Muslim couple, try to scrounge up enough money to go to Hajj.
2012 - Barfi! - Hindi. A charming prankster's (Ranbir Kapoor) bittersweet relationship with two women (Priyanka Chopra, Ileana D'Cruz) turns his life upside-down.	2013 - The Good Road - Gujarati. A family on vacation lose their son. A truck driver's last ride. A girl chasing hope. This is a life affirming journey, across a local highway, and into the heart of an unseen India, where acts of great compassion are shown to strangers.
2014 - Liar's Dice - Hindi. Kamala (Geetanjali Thapa), a young woman from Chitkul village and her young daughter Manya, embark on a journey in search for her husband (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who went missing after having left to work many months ago.	2015 - Court - Marathi. The suicide of a sewage cleaner leads to the arrest of aging Dalit activist/folk singer for abetting the suicide through his lyrics. As the case unfolds over many months, so do the personal lives of the Judge, the Public Prosecutor and the activist's lawyer.

 

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