The wins for RRR and The Elephant Whisperers mark a new recognition in the West of the full spectrum of cinema that India produces, an acknowledgement that there is more to the films made here than Bollywood.
The success of RRR and The Elephant Whisperers is a recognition of the quality and diversity in Indian cinema. It is a moment to savour and build on.
By: Editorial
Updated: March 14, 2023 07:02 IST
Two Indian productions made history at LA’s Dolby Theatre on Sunday evening. The Elephant Whisperers, Kartiki Gonsalves’s debut film, won the Best Documentary Short Film and ‘Naatu Naatu’, composed by M M Keeravani and lyrics by Chandrabose, from the S S Rajamouli film RRR, won Best Original Song at the 95th Academy Awards. Three Indian films had been among the nominees this year — Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes was up for Best Documentary Feature Film, but lost out to Navalny, which is about the Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. For two of the three Indian nominees to end up with statuettes is a big moment for Indian cinema — Oscars, after all, is a global benchmark of excellence in film-making.
The wins for RRR and The Elephant Whisperers mark a new recognition in the West of the full spectrum of cinema that India produces, an acknowledgement that there is more to the films made here than Bollywood. For long, even as filmmakers like Satyajit Ray and Adoor Gopalakrishnan were feted in the film festival circuit and, lately, Indian documentaries were recognised at festivals like Cannes, the bulk of Indian cinema has attracted little critical attention. The RRR juggernaut, having already snared a Golden Globe and other awards, rode into the Oscars positioned as the favourite in its category and backed by a massive, stubborn campaign by Rajamouli after his film was snubbed in favour of Pan Nalin’s Chhello Show as India’s official entry in the race. RRR’s epic scale and everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach, is in sharp contrast to the intimate tale of two orphaned elephants and their human caretakers told by Gonsalves’s non-fiction short. The films’ wins must also be seen against the larger conversation about diverse voices that is gripping Hollywood and making room for stories from other cultures: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, the story of an Asian-American family featuring actors of Asian origin, sweeping the awards is evidence of the churn. Both RRR and The Elephant Whisperers, rooted as they are in Indian milieu, were able to take advantage of this larger shift. They were also aided in no small measure by the entertainment revolution brought in by OTT platforms: Gonsalves’s film was distributed by Netflix, while RRR’s burst of fame came after it began streaming last year.
Indian cinema has long been touted as its greatest soft power and the two Oscar wins present the opportunity to expand both its canvas and market. This means creating conditions that allow the art to flourish, not just in terms of resources but also in experimenting with ideas and views that may not necessarily be conforming with the mainstream. Despite being one of the largest filmmaking countries in the world, India’s track record at the Oscars has been dismal. RRR and The Elephant Whisperers have taken a first step towards correcting this imbalance. Over to tomorrow’s storytellers and actors and artists to make the most of this historic moment.
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