This year’s Oscar nominations are out, and India has bagged a place in the Best Documentary Feature category, with Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh’s Writing With Fire securing a place on the coveted list. On Tuesday night, Rintu took to Twitter to share a video of the televised nominations. The elated filmmaker wrote, “Oh My God! Writing With Fire just got nominated for @TheAcademy Award. Oh My God! #OscarNoms #WritingWithFire (sic).”

Earlier in 2021, the film that chronicles the rise of Khabar Lahariya – India’s only newspaper run by Dalit women – won the audience and jury awards in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival 2021. “It is a historic moment,” said Sushmit about the Oscar nod, adding, “Beyond our imagination.”

Highlighting the fact that after Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan, Indian filmmaking is back in the global spotlight, Sushmit said, “Independent filmmakers have always had to struggle harder to be heard. On several global forums we have had discussions on why non-fiction is not given the same importance as fiction.”

Rinku said while the announcement is of course a recognition for them, “as artists with an independent voice, it is also a huge spotlight on the modern Indian woman and how she redefines power” She added, “This is the first time an Indian documentary by Indians has been nominated, so it feels like a huge barrier has been breached too.”

Earlier, when the film won at the Sundance Film Festival, Rintu had said, “We saw a beautiful photo story of a woman distributing newspapers in the rural heartlands of Uttar Pradesh. That led us to discover the work of Khabar Lahariya — the only Dalit women-led newspaper in India. We met them at a time when after 14 years of print, they were at the cusp of transitioning from print to digital, which we felt was a critical moment to begin our story from.”

The film that took five years to be made has music by Kolkata-based musician and guitar player Tajdar Junaid. Soon after the documentary received its Oscar nod, Tajdar told us he was “overwhelmed” by the news. “I feel really blessed to be a part of this journey with a hardworking team,” he said. Tajdar shared how the filmmakers had approached him in 2020 to create “an evocative score that highlights the struggles and triumphs of the Dalit women journalists.”

Talking about the film’s music and Oscar nod, he said, “The score that merges with the narrative of these incredible women is meant to inspire hope and depict their struggles as well. This nomination will also inspire young filmmakers to take pride in their craft and sharpen it. Writing With Fire is also a crucial piece of work for the generation that deals with sensitive issues pertaining to women empowerment.”

- With inputs from Bhaswati Ghosh

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Filmmakers Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, who are also a married couple, are ecstatic as their debut feature documentary, Writing With Fire, has been nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 94th Academy Awards. This makes it the first wholesome Indian production to be ever nominated in this category.

The documentary follows a group of Dalit women in Uttar Pradesh, who are the founders of Khabar Lahariya, a first-of-its-kind newspaper run entirely by women.

Reacting to the nomination, Thomas says, “I think it is unbelievable. It is history made. For Dalit women journalists to be at the centre of a story like this that has found such a huge resonance is beyond amazing. It is a huge moment for Indian films and cinema.”

Two documentaries set in India have earlier won Oscars for Best Documentary Short — Smile Pinki (2008) and Period. End Of Sentence (2018). However, they were international production and co-production, respectively.

Writing With Fire has already been winning awards all over the world, including the Special Jury Award: Impact for Change and Audience Award at Sundance Film Festival. “When it opened at Sundance and won, it told us that this film is powerful. It has travelled to 100-plus festivals, picked up 20-plus awards. People’s response was emotionally charged,” Thomas tells us. However, bagging an Oscar nomination is not easy as it is preceded by big campaigns.

For this film though, the filmmakers did nothing of that sort due to lack of backing of any big studio. “The only thing we could do was make sure that the Academy members watch the film,” she says, adding, “You can see the impact when a tiny film gets nominated. When one of us opens that door, it opens for everyone.”

Now, Thomas and the team are keeping their fingers crossed for a win at the March 27 ceremony. “I can’t wait for all of us (including the Dalit women) to be on the red carpet. I hope Covid-19 does not play spoilsport,” she ends.