What it takes for Indian Cinema to go International?

I was writing this while watching the World's most prestigious award ceremony- the Academy. Slumdog Millionaire has bagged 8 awards and Smile Pinki won the Best Short Documentary.I was happy really happy about India being a subject of these 2 experiments of 2 brilliant film makers, and bagging the global recognition, and putting India in the world pedestal for the first time in World Cinema.In fact when Resul Pookutty ,and Rahman walked the stage for Best Sound Mixing,Best Song,and Score respectively, and were speechless for few seconds..I actually felt a lump in my throat- feeling their emotions!!!!

But while these were feel good moments -I cried actually which I never do on any such events- and very feel good moments- the only achievements that India could be proud about was Rahman and Resul's Oscars, which was theirs ...by all means!!!The excitement and joy in me for all the other categories, - well - was absent actually !!


What also made me think and feel sad about was - why both the films- Slumdog Millionaire, and Smile Pinki needed a Danny Boyle and Megan Mylan to capture India's essence,issues and story, so brilliantly?Does the Indian film industry lack good film makers, directors, or is it that we do not have the resources, or a film needs to be made in English or the lobbying and PR- or our film producers are more keen on the cliched, hero/heroine love,revenge,and some lousy comedy based stories- where a Kareena's size zero, or wardrobe, and power yoga are the source of publicising a film- WHAT?

Slumdog's budget was made on a budget of $15 MN- which is being called a low budget film- but to our standards, go ahead and calculate how much that is - ...close to 70 crores!But what about Smile Pinki?


Let's come to talent- plot,direction,music, there is no lack of it in our country..what with such brilliant off beat cinema coming up in the past few years, and concepts (don't forget SM is actually written by an Indian- Vikas Swarup) which have never been experimented before- even if they don't make box office hits- but no- there is no dearth of talents...but probably the lack of a global milestone in the vision of making a film.


And as for making it in English ...no way- Jai Ho was not in English to win the Oscar and neither was Smile Pinki (it was in hindi and bhojpuri)!!!


Lobbying?PR ? is that what it is ? I am really failing to understand what is it that we lack..Rahman's music was always brilliant, but it was because the Slumdog was in English it proved to be a wonderful platform for Rahman to reach the global platform.But even for a documentary film, why is it that no Indian film maker could make a short film on any issues on India which could make it to the world platform? Considering that we can feel, and relate to such issues, more closely and emotionally than a non-Indian? contacts,resources, reach?

Probably a combination of all the above..maybe Slumdog Millionaire and Smile Pinki has projected India as a land of creative opportunities to be explored by everyone in the world!And maybe now that 2 India based films, with all Indian sentiments, and emotions have bagged the most prestigious awards of the world,our own film makers, and producers can give a thought on the question in the title of this note rather than just wondering about the Friday's Box Office collections!