The Tussle for Representation

The controversy over India’s first Oscar-nominated documentary

- YASHICA DUTT

Notwithstanding the now infamous slap, the 2022 Academy Awards had many firsts. Among the catalogue of correctives to presumably make up for their decades of rewarding mostly cis-white male creatives—Troy Kotsur became the first deaf male actor to win an Oscar, while Ariana DeBose became the first openly queer woman of colour to win an acting award—there was also the first ever nomination for an Indian documentary: Writing with Fire, a film about Khabar Lahariya, a rural media outlet led by Dalit women. Following months of relentless buzz, a Sundance Award and multiple global accolades, the Oscar nomination came as no surprise to anyone who had been following the documentary since its global release.

In an early conversation I had with the director couple Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh following the nomination, they told me the film’s protagonists were already picking which saris they would wear to the ceremony. Except, on the day of the ceremony, Thomas and Ghosh would walk the famed red carpet alone. None of the journalists from Khabar Lahariya had accompanied them to Los Angeles.