Daily Times

Bollywood actor-turned-BJP MP Kangana Ranaut criticized the selection criteria for the Oscars, accusing the Academy of picking ‘anti-India’ films, which show the country in a bad light, for the competition.

Out and about to promote her first film as a solo director, ‘Emergency’, Kangana Ranaut took the opportunity to speak about the selection criteria of the titles, chosen to compete for the foreign language category at the prestigious Oscar Awards.

Weeks after Kiran Rao’s critically acclaimed ‘Laapataa Ladies’, failed to make it to the Oscars 2025 shortlist, Ranaut has now claimed that ‘anti-India’ films are deliberately picked in the Academy Awards race to show the country as a ‘shithole’.

“Usually, the agenda they push for India is very different. Jo Oscar pick karta hai (What Oscars pick) is anti-India,” she asserted. “Abhi bhi jo film praise garner kar rahi hai (even now, the film that is garnering praise), I was very excited about it. I heard the director say that in India, you don’t have the freedom to love the way you want to love because of religious intolerance. I haven’t even seen the film.”

“For the Oscars, it has to be a film that makes the country look bad. Slumdog Millionaire, etc. It always has to be a film that makes the country look like a shithole,” maintained the ‘Queen’ actor.

Ranaut further clarified about her movie, “Emergency is not that film.”

“The West is ready to see how India stands today. I have never cared about these awards. I don’t care about Indian awards or Western awards. It is a film that’s brilliantly made and it is as good as any international film,” she described. “But at the same time, I know how geopolitics works. We, as nationalist people, don’t have much hope with these award functions.” For the unversed, Ranaut is awaiting the release of her ambitious debut directorial ‘Emergency’, scheduled to hit theatres on January 19.

The political biopic, directed and produced by and starring Ranaut in the lead role of former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, was previously scheduled for theatrical release on September 6, last year. However, the film’s certificate was revoked by the Central Board of Film Certification, due to its sensitive theme.