dimpy.handa
MP Guru
There was a moment in this year's Oscar telecast which many thought was a snooze. Scott Rudin, giddy with excitement at having won an Oscar for Best Picture for No Country for Old Men thanked his partner, John Barlow. "Honey, without you this would be hardware."
Now just picture an awards night in Mumbai, one of those where actors perform on stage to their hit songs, and then feign surprise when they win. Imagine such candour about their sexual preferences beamed live to a global audience (although later the squeamish Academy dropped it from the transcript). More than ever this year the 80th Academy Awards were about honouring the movies, no matter the country of their origin, in the most parochial nation in the world.
As the film awards season kicks off this summer, there's much Bollywood could learn from them. Hollywood keeps its acrobatics for its summer blockbusters. On Oscar night, it chooses to present to the world a sedate industry, one that means business, that makes art and that celebrates intellect.
Now just picture an awards night in Mumbai, one of those where actors perform on stage to their hit songs, and then feign surprise when they win. Imagine such candour about their sexual preferences beamed live to a global audience (although later the squeamish Academy dropped it from the transcript). More than ever this year the 80th Academy Awards were about honouring the movies, no matter the country of their origin, in the most parochial nation in the world.
As the film awards season kicks off this summer, there's much Bollywood could learn from them. Hollywood keeps its acrobatics for its summer blockbusters. On Oscar night, it chooses to present to the world a sedate industry, one that means business, that makes art and that celebrates intellect.