Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is often credited with putting Indian cinema and makers on the international map with projects such as Bandit Queen (1994) and Elizabeth (1998). The latter had received seven nominations at the 71st Academy Awards and bagged the Best Makeup honour in 1999. As India won two trophies at the recently held Oscars, it’s only fitting to get his reaction to the same.

“I was waiting for this! After Elizabeth, I was waiting for other filmmakers to take it up, and thank God for that. It’s been years,” he says. 

Kapur adds that people should celebrate Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes equally for getting a nomination. “You shouldn’t discount All That Breathes from India didn’t win — a nomination is as good as a win. It’s a beautiful film,” he shares, adding, “So, two heartfelt documentaries (including The Elephant Whisperers) and a feature film like RRR (2022), have kind of taken the West by storm. It was an Indian melodramatic celebration of what we do best. Internationally, they have opened their arms [for Indian cinema],” shares Kapur.

He also addresses the much-debated aspect of the Academy giving in to popular demand. “It can’t be just art cinema; else it will fall by the wayside,” elaborates the director’s whose film What's Love Got To Do With It? starring Emma Thompson and Shabana Azmi is set for a release in India soon.

So, do we wait for global validation before recognizing our own talent at home? “It’s great to get an Oscar; suddenly the world knows about you, and you get [more] opportunities to work internationally. But I have constantly said that we don’t need validation. And nobody has proven it better than (filmmaker) S S Rajamouli. He has proved it through such an Indian way of making movies and made it so celebratory that the whole of the West is saying, ‘Look at this’.”

Reiterating the fact, Kapur recalls the time when Elizabeth was nominated in seven categories at the 1999 Oscars. “Everybody said, ‘Wow, look at this director’. I said, ‘Wait a minute, I am the same guy who made Bandit Queen, Masoom (1983) and Mr India (1987). Why am I suddenly this amazing director — because the West has come up and said, he is amazing?’,” says Kapur, asserting that validation can make an artiste try “to be who they are not”.

Kapur, who had directed the late actor-filmmaker Satish Kaushik for the iconic character Calendar, in Mr India, shares fond memories of him. “People used to say, ‘Oh My God, if Shekhar is on a honeymoon, Satish will go with him’! That’s how people saw us,” he shares, adding, “Nobody knew that Satish was a brilliant mathematician as well! His death is such a loss; we have lost somebody who was yet to explore his potential, there was so much more.”