Aamir Khan, who has been to the Oscars before with Lagaan but never got an award, is hoping to get lucky this time round with Taare Zameen Par. His film on a dyslexic boy, which moved Indian audiences to tears last year and made a star overnight out of child actor Darsheel Safary, has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film Category. And, Aamir knows, that not only is the awareness of learning disabilities like dyslexia high in the US, but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has in the past been sympathetic towards films based on such bold and heart-wrenching subjects that tug at human emotions.
There’s been Rain Man in 1989, starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman as his autistic savant brother, that won four Oscars including awards for Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Director and Actor. And, later in 1995, Tom Hanks’s Forrest Gump, in which he plays a small town man with a low IQ who was rejected by public school and went on to win fame, fortune and glory, also did well at the Oscars with the film getting awards for Best Picture, Visual Effects, Director and Actor. Now, Aamir is banking on TZP’s emotional appeal to work its magic on the Academy’s members. His earlier outing there with Lagaan has made the Academy familiar with his work, but, Aamir said, “That won’t help in getting me higher marks, though it ought to get me to the attention of the members.”
Undettered that Lagaan failed to make the Oscars, but in fact encouraged by his experience there already, Aamir is ready to go down the Oscar road again with TZP. “Which means organising special screenings — apart from the official one set up by the Academy — for the 600 members who form the committee to look into submissions of Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary, placing ads in trade newspapers, hiring a publicist to talk about the film and highlight the impact it made in India,” he said. He will have to make one trip to LA to set the ball rolling, but, beyond that, there is nothing that Aamir Khan can do but wait and watch and hope. “My fingers are crossed,” he said.
Undettered that Lagaan failed to make the Oscars, but in fact encouraged by his experience there already, Aamir is ready to go down the Oscar road again with TZP. “Which means organising special screenings — apart from the official one set up by the Academy — for the 600 members who form the committee to look into submissions of Best Foreign Film and Best Documentary, placing ads in trade newspapers, hiring a publicist to talk about the film and highlight the impact it made in India,” he said. He will have to make one trip to LA to set the ball rolling, but, beyond that, there is nothing that Aamir Khan can do but wait and watch and hope. “My fingers are crossed,” he said.
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