Movies erase all human set boundaries. When you sit in the dark theater watching magic on screen, it doesn’t matter what religion, class, race, gender people next to you are. It even transcends language like Charlie Chaplin did during silent film era. But the academy has historically boxed itself in.
In its 93 year history, Parasite(2019) is the first and only Asian film to win an Oscar for best picture. Even though Asian cinema has been producing cinematic masterpieces, they were largely ignored by the Academy.
In fact, Hollywood itself had a problematic past with non white actors and technicians. It took decades for the Academy to apologize for the treatment of Sacheen Littlefeather on Oscar stage. Legends like Sydney Poitier had to fight to get African American actors to get noticed. Before Bruce Lee, Asian actors in Hollywood were caricatures to provide comedic relief. Lee is a force of nature and didn’t let racism define his limits. He made Asian cinema that even Hollywood watched.
But Indian cinema has largely been ignored by Hollywood. Enter RRR by SS Rajamouli. RRR has blown away the whole world. It made top 10 most watched movies list on Netflix in over 60 countries. It has earned over $150 million. It has earned praise from Academy award winners, film critics and influential media members.
Matthew Cherry is an academy award winning director and he has been one of the most influential voices in supporting RRR. He first expressed support for RRR and NTR Jr for Oscars on July 18, 2022. Then on July 29, Variety magazine included RRR, director SS Rajamouli and NTR Jr in their prediction list to win best picture, best director and best actor Oscar respectively.
The LA film festival, Beyondfest also added that both RRR and NTR Jr deserve to be nominated for Oscars. NTR Jr is one of the finest actors, not just in India but the world. Who else can convincingly portray the aggression, innocence, emotional depth of Bheem as well as he did and be talented enough to pull off Naatu Naatu on top of it?
Adding to the growing list of influential advocates for RRR is veteran journalist Rochelle Riley. Ms.Riley is in multiple hall of fames for journalism. She’s an influential voice in advocating for Academy rewarding non white actors and technicians whose work deserves the recognition. On August 20, she said RRR is a lock to win best foreign film Oscar. She also said it has chances for best picture nomination in general category. She especially mentioned that NTR Jr who played Bheem superlatively should have been in the best actor prediction list of Indiewire. No film or actor of Indian origin ever got this kind of recognition.
The worldwide response from audience and critics shows RRR deserves Academy’s attention. RRR broke through all glass ceilings set for Indian cinema in the west. It’s time for Academy to completely erase boundaries it set for itself and reward Asian cinema.
