Backlash greeted a recent decision by the Film Federation of India (FFI) to submit “Laapataa Ladies,” over Payal Kapadia “All We Imagine As Light” as their submission for Oscar consideration as 2024’s Best International Feature.
THR’s Anuska Alves reports a quote from FFI President Ravi Kottarakara that gives reasoning behind the Kapadia snub. Kottarakara tells THR that the Indian Oscar selection committee felt that Kapadia’s film was “less Indian” than “Laapataa Ladies”:
The committee said that they were watching a European film taking place in India, not an Indian film taking place in India.
“All We Imagine As Light” is an international co-production featuring financing from France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and India. Kottarakara does admit that Kapadia’s film was very much in consideration. He, however, had this to say:
This film is primarily a French production, but it wasn’t picked by even France to be its official entry to the Oscars. They chose a native film. Similarly, we picked a film with more nativity as our official representation to the Oscars.
The actual cast and crew of Kapadia’s film is 95% Indian (the most significant exception is the film's editor, Clément Pinteaux, who is French). The idea that there's a certain European quality to the storytelling is an absurd excuse. Does this mean that every Indian Oscar pick has to feel like it was made by an Indian and follow “regulatory” Indian filmmaking techniques? It’s laughable.