Each year, as fall approaches, India’s famously unpredictable Oscar committee takes center stage to pick their candidate in a process as dramatic as any Bollywood blockbuster.
As always, the influential body behind the committee, the Film Federation of India (FFI), brought together a special jury of industry veterans to sift through the year’s cinematic offerings to choose the one film that will represent India. But while the country boasts the world’s most prolific film industry, its track record in the international feature film race has fallen short with many missed opportunities. The most notorious example is Ritesh Batra’s “The Lunchbox” which was not selected in 2013 despite having earned widespread critical laurels.
Some eyebrows were also raised when global hit “RRR” wasn’t picked as India’s Oscar candidate in 2022. The FFI saved face, nevertheless, after its official submission, Pan Nalin’s “Last Film Show,” made the…
