No. This blog does not make any judgment on people’s desire for international recognition. Neither does it underplay the importance of the Academy awards, or the superiority of national recognition.
This is an attempt to understand the psychology behind the crave for international recognition and whether it is rooted in some deep-seated malaise within our society that we seem incapable of noticing, leave alone addressing.
The craving for recognition by our filmmakers does not limit itself to just the Oscars, it extends to any recognition from any international film festival, howsoever obscure. The recognition is then displayed as a stamp of quality of work done by these filmmakers.
And this is where the truth hides!
Why is it that an award received in one of the innumerable award shows in India does not carry as much worth as one award at any international level?
The problem may reside in the brutal compromise of merit that pervades across all these award shows in India. There simply isn’t a mechanism to recognize, appreciate, and reward meritorious work. The award functions have become a ceremony of fraternal back-patting.
There are a few factors for this and I am going to list some of them here:
The Oscars, or other international awards, unlike the indigenous ones, place a high importance on the merit of the art. Of course, some of the decisions of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have been disputed in the past, but none of them have been extrapolated to doubt the credibility of the process itself in awarding merit. The nominees’ work is so exceptional that picking one over the other becomes a matter of academic opinion. Indeed, to be nominated itself is considered a remarkable achievement by the artists in Hollywood.
Merit in India, in the present circumstances, is a far-fetched idea because of its socio-political circumstances. Not just in movie awards, but the vehement decimation of merit has spread across education, jobs, promotions, arts, literature, music and academia also.
Various reasons to subdue merit are professed and are followed relentlessly – caste, language, gender, pedigree, dynasty, affluence, class etc.
It is no wonder that Indians in general do not trust the systems in place within the country to recognize talent. We constantly look outside for an external confirmation of our abilities as we have come to believe that external systems place far more worth on merit than the considerations listed above.
If we need to start making any progress, we would need to create a generation that is energetic, enthusiastic, and confident; we need a generation that believes in its abilities to make a mark and take India to greater heights; we need a system where the brilliant shine and where mediocrity is abhorred; we need a country that values merit over everything else.
The question is – do we have the courage?
This is an attempt to understand the psychology behind the crave for international recognition and whether it is rooted in some deep-seated malaise within our society that we seem incapable of noticing, leave alone addressing.
The craving for recognition by our filmmakers does not limit itself to just the Oscars, it extends to any recognition from any international film festival, howsoever obscure. The recognition is then displayed as a stamp of quality of work done by these filmmakers.
And this is where the truth hides!
Why is it that an award received in one of the innumerable award shows in India does not carry as much worth as one award at any international level?
The problem may reside in the brutal compromise of merit that pervades across all these award shows in India. There simply isn’t a mechanism to recognize, appreciate, and reward meritorious work. The award functions have become a ceremony of fraternal back-patting.
There are a few factors for this and I am going to list some of them here:
- Most of these award shows are sponsored by a corporate house which has interests in the industry itself
- The award shows simply fail to include non-popular work known more commonly as ‘art movies’ in their consideration set
- The focus is more on the dance and song routines to build TRP ratings than on the “awards”
- Popular voting: where every tom, dick, and harry, mostly ignorant of the art of filmmaking gets to have a say in the awards
The Oscars, or other international awards, unlike the indigenous ones, place a high importance on the merit of the art. Of course, some of the decisions of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences have been disputed in the past, but none of them have been extrapolated to doubt the credibility of the process itself in awarding merit. The nominees’ work is so exceptional that picking one over the other becomes a matter of academic opinion. Indeed, to be nominated itself is considered a remarkable achievement by the artists in Hollywood.
Merit in India, in the present circumstances, is a far-fetched idea because of its socio-political circumstances. Not just in movie awards, but the vehement decimation of merit has spread across education, jobs, promotions, arts, literature, music and academia also.
Various reasons to subdue merit are professed and are followed relentlessly – caste, language, gender, pedigree, dynasty, affluence, class etc.
It is no wonder that Indians in general do not trust the systems in place within the country to recognize talent. We constantly look outside for an external confirmation of our abilities as we have come to believe that external systems place far more worth on merit than the considerations listed above.
If we need to start making any progress, we would need to create a generation that is energetic, enthusiastic, and confident; we need a generation that believes in its abilities to make a mark and take India to greater heights; we need a system where the brilliant shine and where mediocrity is abhorred; we need a country that values merit over everything else.
The question is – do we have the courage?
