This list will be chopped down to 5 final nominees and will be announced on January 25. Peepli Live beat other critically acclaimed movies like Udaan and Raajneeti to the top spot as India's pick and Aamir Khan has said that he is disappointed at it is exit.
India had a golden Oscar moment in 2009 when Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire swept the awards. American filmmaker Megan Mylan also took home the Oscar for Best Documentary for Smile Pinky. Previous Indian nominations for Best Foreign Film have been few and far between.
Mother India, starring Nargis as the rural woman struggling to survive, became the first Indian movie to make the cut in 1958. Three decades later, Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay!, dealing with the lives of street children, became the second film to make it to the final 5 in 1988. Another 14 years went by before we saw a third Indian movie at the Kodak Theatre - this time it was Lagaan, Ashutosh Gowariker's period drama about a drought-stricken village, starring Aamir Khan.
The golden man eluded all three films, as it did Ashvin Kumar's Little Terrorist, nominated for Best Live Action Short Film in 2004. Our films may not win, but we have had better luck with individual Oscars. In 1982, Bhanu Athaiya won Best Costume Design for Gandhi. A decade later, Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray was given the Honorary Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1992. And 2009's Slumdog sweep included an Oscar for Sound Mixing for Resul Pookutty, and 2 Oscars for music maestro A R Rahman, for Best Score and Best Song.
The common thread between all the films nominated as well as Slumdog is poverty and economic struggle - a theme continued in this year's Peepli Live which looked readymade to hit the Oscar jackpot. The film raked in 4 times it is shoestring budget at the box office with it is tongue in cheek look at the reality of rural India.
But Aamir or no Aamir, 2011 will not be the year we bring home a little something from the Academy Awards.
Source: NDTV