Bollywood Deserves Its Own Oscar Category

The 81st Academy Awards ceremony in 2009 has been referred to as the "Indian Oscars" because the film 'Slumdog Millionaire' won eight awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. The film is set in India, the actors are Indian, one-third of the dialogue is in Hindi (one of India's many languages), and there's a Bollywood-style song at the end, but it is not, as many Americans believe, an Indian movie. The filmmakers, including the director Danny Boyle, are British. Only three of the film's eight Academy Awards went to Indians: legendary composer A.R. Rahman won Best Original Score, Rahman and lyricist Gulzar won Best Original Song, and Resul Pookutty won Best Sound Mixing-which is not to be confused with Best Sound Editing. Yes, there are two separate Academy Awards for sound production, as well as two awards for documentary, two awards for animation, and three awards for short film. At the 82nd Academy Awards to be held in 2010, the number of Best Picture nominees will double to 10. And yet, there is only one award for Best Foreign Language Film, chosen from a mere five nominees. Bollywood, the largest film industry in the world in terms of film output and audience numbers, has never won that award. And it's not because Bollywood films don't deserve the honor.

Over the last 20 years, the countries that have dominated the best foreign film category are France (10 nominations, 1 win), Germany (8 nominations, 2 wins), Italy (6 nominations, 3 wins), Spain (5 nominations, 3 wins), and Russia (five nominations, 1 win). Non-European countries have taken the award home only four times in the past two decades: Japan in 2008, South Africa in 2005, Canada in 2003 (the film was in French), and Taiwan in 2000. An Indian film has only been nominated three times in the history of the award: 'Mother India' in 1957, 'Salaam Bombay' in 1988, and 'Lagaan' in 2001.

Maybe the category should be renamed Best European Film for the sake of accuracy. And while the Academy is at it, it could add a new category: Best Bollywood Film.