Can anyone BUY Oscar Awards?

[Yamaka]

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Hindustan Times reported today that one Ismail Durbar claims that AR Rahman BOUGHT the Oscars for the movie SLM?

His logic it seems is that SLM was not as good as "Roja or Bombay"... therefore he says that ARR bought it!!!

Is this the typical reaction among musicians and fans in India? Please chime in...

Cheers.

 

[kunjuppu]

Y,

oscars, even though they have prestige, are a reflection of the current american mainstream industry thinking. oscar prizes are won through votes. the voters are the members of the american motion picture academy which means anyone and everyone, unionized by the non producing part of hollywood movies.

having said this, you have been in the usa for how long? do you think anything in the usa could be bought? especially something that is so high profile as the oscars or the pulitzers?

NO.

on the other hand, is SLM presents the best of ARR?

for fans in india, exposed to roja or bombay or jeans or VTV (my favourite), this might seem as a political ploy. but from the viewpoint of americans, this is their first exposure of ARR. right?

so, in reply to your agonizement, take it easy. india is a country of 1.2B and there will always be detractors.

i like ARR's music most times, though i find his person sometimes too much of a good two shoes to stomach. he is a good guy and i dont think he would he ever stoop to 'buying' awards. i think he is beyond that.

i think also, it is time for all of us, to nurture new talent. february 2011, i had a film producer sitting next to me, london to chennai flight, and i got an insight into the affordability of certain elements in tamil/indian movie industry.

ARR is now affordable only to the richest (except perhaps mani ratnam to whom his bonds go a long way).

let us cheer the unappreciated but great ones.

do you remember PBS/Janaki 'thennangeetru oonjaliley' from paadhai theriyuthu paar? bum movie. but great song. by MB Srinivasan, a marxist (incidentally also a tambram like pattukkottai kalyanasundaram - 100 years this year). always made money by ad jingles, but would not compromise his marxists beliefs. never made it big.

on the same calibre, nala dhamayanthi music director, ramesh vinayakam. i think one of the most unappreciated music directors of kollywood. inspite of great songs, he never gets repeats from the directors. my favourite of us, always haunting me, is 'enna idhu enna idhu ennai kolvadhu' sung by chinmayee (cute looking and another favrite of mine) and the MD RV himself. what a great haunting waltz - enjoy the sway with your wife sometime and get her in the mood

YouTube - ‪Enna Ithu - Movie Nala Dhamayanthi‬‏

Nala Dhamayanthi - Nala Dhamayanthi Songs - Nala Dhamayanthi Movie Songs - Tamilmp3world.Com

 

[renuka]

Hindustan Times reported today that one Ismail Durbar claims that AR Rahman BOUGHT the Oscars for the movie SLM?

His logic it seems is that SLM was not as good as "Roja or Bombay"... therefore he says that ARR bought it!!!

Is this the typical reaction among musicians and fans in India? Please chime in...

Cheers.

Ismail Darbar is just doing what most people of Indian heritage do best.......
Bring down fellow countryman!!!

ARR has made much better music before than Jai Ho but ARR is an intelligent guy..he has superb marketing and self projectional skills which other music directors lack.

Have anyone noticed that he seldoms takes really top shots singers and prefers sometimes even underdogs?

You see when you take a top shot singer eg SPBala no one will be talking about the music director but rather SPB.

ARR brings out the best in the underdogs he takes and all credit goes to ARR instead.

He is a smart intelligent bussiness man too not just a music director..

 

[Yamaka]

Dear K and Renuka:

Here is my two-cents on this matter...

It's absolutely a lunacy to even think in the secrecy of one's mind that one can buy Oscar or Grammy or Bafta or the like...

People can be jealous of so many things... but to say that ARR bought the Oscars is beyond my wildest nasty thing to say about a musician..

Let's back track a little bit and review AR Rahman the man and the musician...

When none other than great Illaya Raja - the Isai Gnani - was reigning supreme, ARR came storming the cinema music with his "China China Assai" in his masterpiece Roja... and he got consecutively 8 Filmfare South Awards as the Best Music Director...

His relentless climb towards the Everest was inexorable.. when he was working in Bomaby Dreams and Elizabeth he got the attention of Danny Boyle, the Ace Director in London and Hollywood and Christian Carson, the Producer of SLM.

They both insisted that ARR must be the Music Director for SLM and the rest was history..

Before ARR got the Oscars, Grammy and Bafta, he already bagged

14 Filmfare South
11 Filmfare National Awards
4 Nationals and many State Awards... beating Illaya Raja every turn of the way!

For Ismail Durbar to say that ARR bought the Oscars is absolute CRAP...

I believe he has to check with a psychiatrist... he must take medicine to control his jealousy of a fellow musician - the Mozart of Madras!

I am reminded of the opening scene in "Amadeas" where Saliary was trying to cut his own throat because he couldn't compete with the young giggling music phenomenon Mozart in real life!

Is Ismail Durbar the Antonio Saliary here? Or is he eying for cheap publicity?

Cheers.

 

[Yamaka]

Ismail Darbar is just doing what most people of Indian heritage do best.......
Bring down fellow countryman!!!

ARR has made much better music before than Jai Ho but ARR is an intelligent guy..he has superb marketing and self projectional skills which other music directors lack.

Have anyone noticed that he seldoms takes really top shots singers and prefers sometimes even underdogs?

You see when you take a top shot singer eg SPBala no one will be talking about the music director but rather SPB.

ARR brings out the best in the underdogs he takes and all credit goes to ARR instead.

He is a smart intelligent bussiness man too not just a music director..

Once I listened to SPB well before ARR got the Oscars; he predicted that Rahman WILL get Oscars; the producer of Taal predicted that he will get Oscars!

In Rahman's Roja, SPB sang many songs, I believe..

ARR has worked many times with SPB and Jesudoss - the two ever-green singers, very senior to him.

According to Srinivas, ARR broke open the cartel and allowed new younger singers to come up..

He is a very humble man with the simple smile of Mona Lisa, as Bharathi Raja once said.

I was once a critic of ARR for his changing name and religion etc all personal matters; after watching him closely and listening to Bollywood people like Gulzaar and Akthar (who said that Rahman changed the style and quality of Indian cinema music for the better), I started admiring him.

I attended his World Tour after SLM in Houston - it was an absolute marvel.. very entertaining and soul stirring performance!

Cheers.

 

[Yamaka]

Dear K:

ARR has a volume of work since 1992.. some are his very best and others are just fine..

For any movie to reach the Nomination process at Oscar or Bafta, it MUST be a complete package with good story, cinematography, good direction, music and songs..much above most of the about 200 movies come along in London and Hollywood a year.

In my mind, Nomination is winning the Semi Final of the Grand Slams! Then the Jurors must see all the Nominated Movies and rank them with their votes... an Accounting Firm secretly collects all the votes and present it AT THE TIME of the Final Presentation.. I understand the Jurors don't consult with one another on what they chose as the best!

SLM got the best package from Danny Boyle, and ARR happened to be his favorite Music Director, and SLM won many Awards in many categories including Music Score AND Song...

John Williams after working in the Hollywood for 60 years has 5 Oscars for Score.. he never won for a Song..

And the Mozart of Madras won for a Score AND singing the Song! That was the HISTORY in Academic Awards!

Grammy confirmed the basic fact that ARR CAN sing a song! LOL...

The question here is NOT whether this is the best of ARR... that's a different question, I believe!

Cheers.

 

[B.Krishnamurthy]

I remember the great Actor of Tamilnadu Shri.Kamalahasan commented that he would have been extremely happy if ARR was awarded Oscar Awards for his songs in a Film produced by an Indian without any participation by Westerners.
IMHO all important decisions like appointment of Pope, Nobel Prize awards,
Miss.World titles,appointments to top posts in United Nations,World Bank,IMF are decided Only by a few powerful countries which includes USA and a few western countries.
If USA decides that INDIA should be made a Permanent member of Security Council of UN,it will be a matter of days only.Will They decide soon in favour of INDIA???????

 

[anandb]

My two cents. I am a huge fan of ARR as a musician and as a person that i have got every single album of his (film and non-film) as a CD and in my iPod. Ismail Darbar is no doubt a very talented musician as his Hum Dilde Chuke sanam and Devdas would vouch for but as a person he is pretty low. He had taken potshots at ARR before as well in spite of the fact that ARR recommended him to Subhas Ghai for his movie "Krsna". He once launched a violent tirade against Sanjay Bhansali who gave him HDCS and Devdas that Sanjay never used him for his films again.

Being a talented musician if I.Darbar kept his mouth shut and practiced humility he might have gone places in Bollywood but unfortunately he has no work other than judging reality shows. And he does not even know what he is talking about. How on earth can you buy all the voters who vote for the Academy Awards? if that was the case ARR should have bought the voters again for "127 Hours" which was nominated last time.

I am a member of the ARR Yahoo fans group and his fan base cuts across religion, region, language and nationality. You have fans in Bangladesh and Pakistan listening to his Tamil songs apart from the North Indians who don't understand one word of Tamil. There is a band called "Rahmania" in Pune who perform only ARR songs and they sing in Tamil too not knowing a word of Tamil. Such is the power of music and the power of ARR. And he himself has remained absolutely humble all along.

IMO, SLM certainly ranks as one of his best as there is a mind boggling range of genres he has tried in that movie. Music is a matter of personal choice so to decide whether a particular album is best or not is very difficult but what is universally accepted is ARR is one among the best of musicians.

 

[Nacchinarkiniyan]

Buy an Oscar? No. But there are ways of getting it. This is true of any award on the earth. And any prize including Nobel prize.

 

[Yamaka]

I remember the great Actor of Tamilnadu Shri.Kamalahasan commented that he would have been extremely happy if ARR was awarded Oscar Awards for his songs in a Film produced by an Indian without any participation by Westerners.
IMHO all important decisions like appointment of Pope, Nobel Prize awards,
Miss.World titles,appointments to top posts in United Nations,World Bank,IMF are decided Only by a few powerful countries which includes USA and a few western countries.
If USA decides that INDIA should be made a Permanent member of Security Council of UN,it will be a matter of days only.Will They decide soon in favour of INDIA???????

Dear Krish Sir:

Yes.. what Kamal said is correct...but he also knows what would get anyone an Oscar, a Bafta or a Grammy!

1. We need a Producer who can bet about $20-50 millions for the project.. we have Reliance Pictures and Sun Pictures - Billionaires to invest.. the question is whether they are interested in taking movies for a Global Audience?

I heard Christian Carson had to beg and borrow in many Continents to finance his movie the SLM.. it was initially rejected by the Warner Bros... finally Fox Search Light found the "diamond in the trash bag" to market it to the world audience... SLM was produced at a cost of U$20 millions and the owners reaped as much as U$400 millions and more AFTER the Oscar recognition.

2. As one Kabir Bedi (who has acted in Bond Movies) said, our Indian producers are focussed on about 2% of the total worldwide revenue in cinema.. they ignore the rest!!

3. Kamal Haasan can bring together all the disparate groups to a Mega Project - Operation Oscar for India, as Ang Lee did for Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon which showcased to the world of ancient Chinese Martial Arts and Love, and got multiple Oscars about a decade ago.

We have ace directors like KB, Mani, Shankar etc and cinematographers, sound engineers, music Maestros and so on... but where's the tenacity of purpose?

The key is it should be produced for a world audience (mostly the English speaking) and subtitled it properly to Japanese, French, Germans, Spanish etc... the quality must be FIRST class technically and should have the magic to rivet the audience!

4. Regarding other political matters, my question is "Is India playing the Global Politics well?"

I remember US was interested in giving India a seat at the UN Security Council at the time of Nehru... who in his infinite wisdom worked hard for a position for CHINA!

China got the Seat, and promptly invaded India.... Krishna Menon was in tears!

So goes the political history of India....

Cheers

Regards

Y

 

[Yamaka]

My two cents. I am a huge fan of ARR as a musician and as a person that i have got every single album of his (film and non-film) as a CD and in my iPod. Ismail Darbar is no doubt a very talented musician as his Hum Dilde Chuke sanam and Devdas would vouch for but as a person he is pretty low. He had taken potshots at ARR before as well in spite of the fact that ARR recommended him to Subhas Ghai for his movie "Krsna". He once launched a violent tirade against Sanjay Bhansali who gave him HDCS and Devdas that Sanjay never used him for his films again.

Being a talented musician if I.Darbar kept his mouth shut and practiced humility he might have gone places in Bollywood but unfortunately he has no work other than judging reality shows. And he does not even know what he is talking about. How on earth can you buy all the voters who vote for the Academy Awards? if that was the case ARR should have bought the voters again for "127 Hours" which was nominated last time.

I am a member of the ARR Yahoo fans group and his fan base cuts across religion, region, language and nationality. You have fans in Bangladesh and Pakistan listening to his Tamil songs apart from the North Indians who don't understand one word of Tamil. There is a band called "Rahmania" in Pune who perform only ARR songs and they sing in Tamil too not knowing a word of Tamil. Such is the power of music and the power of ARR. And he himself has remained absolutely humble all along.

IMO, SLM certainly ranks as one of his best as there is a mind boggling range of genres he has tried in that movie. Music is a matter of personal choice so to decide whether a particular album is best or not is very difficult but what is universally accepted is ARR is one among the best of musicians.

Hi Anand:

Had KB and Mani produced Roja for a world audience (with proper subtitling), we could have gotten Oscars long time ago!

That's true for many other movies made in Tamil and Hindi... they were meant for a small local audience.. to serve their taste and sensitivity... not for the larger audience!

When ARR did not get the Oscar for Lagaan, it seems his Mom was crying profusely... and ARR told her "Ma... don't cry... I will get you TWO Oscars soon!"

How prophetic was he!! How many sons can fulfill their promises to their Moms as ARR did?

I was very thrilled that ARR got the Nominations for Bafta, Oscar and Hollywood Critics Awards in 2010 for the 127 Hours!

That's the Semi Final win in Wimbledon and US Open! There are million people waiting to win JUST a Nomination...

Finally, ARR won the Hollywood Critics Award for the year!

What a stupendous achievement for the Mozart of Madras! All Indians must celebrate and happy to learn that amongst them lives a legend who can bring home the World Trophies!

Forget about Ismail Durbar - he is suffering from deep sense of rejection and incompetence!

Cheers.

 

[kunjuppu]

Y,

re your post #10:

hollywood producers are now producing movies in india. along with reliance, which has entered bollywood in a big movie.

tamil movie industry was dominated till J came to power by the marans (sun pictures - enthiran), udhayanidhi stalin (red giant - VTV producer) dayanidhi alagiri (cloud nine movies) dominated the tamil movie scene.

these guys with their cohorts in the tamil movie industry, brought out rules that effectively kept away non tamil nadu producers from producing tamil movies.

also, they controlled the theatre outlets such that other producers could not release their movies.

kamal hassan used to visit MK every week, to get the old man to influence his family, to release theatre spots for Manmadhan Ambu. Vijay's Kavalan was in the cans for months for want of theatres, and incurred losses for the producers. vijay/his dad effectively unleashed their money power and fan base for J's cause.

the word was, that every person involved in the tamil movie industry was exhorted informally to get 10 votes. against the DMK. such was the hatred of the MK family's influence.

hopefully, we will start getting movies like mynaa and such, produced by recent film institute graduates. the only thing i hope, is that, these get to make upbeat movies. i saw a string of them, most of whose names i forget - all ending in blood and death. someone should tell these guys that budget movies can be happy ones too.

if the movies are well made, world distributors will take care to release them. it need not be big budgeted like crouching tiger with all its magic techniques. after all one of the biggest grossers was a movie made with hand camera was blair witch project.

as the குடுகுடுப்பைக்காரன் would say 'தமிழ் சினிமாவுக்கு நல்ல காலம் வருது'

having said upbeat stuff so far, i would like to end this post with a dose of this reality. enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y1V5up6ljw&feature=relmfu

 

[anandb]

Honestly, I don't believe the story of ARR's mother crying for not getting an Oscar for Lagaan and ARR consoling her. Lagaan was nominated under the Best Foreign Film category and not under the Best Original Score category, so no way anyone was expecting an Oscar for Lagaan's music. But, IMO, Lagaan's music was definitely on par with the Oscar's.

 

[Yamaka]

Honestly, I don't believe the story of ARR's mother crying for not getting an Oscar for Lagaan and ARR consoling her. Lagaan was nominated under the Best Foreign Film category and not under the Best Original Score category, so no way anyone was expecting an Oscar for Lagaan's music. But, IMO, Lagaan's music was definitely on par with the Oscar's.

Fine, if you don't believe the story.. (This came out from a person who knows the inside story of Lagaan and Rahman's family.)

However, there are many people who believe that Lagaan became very popular only because of the music score AND songs....and not because of showcasing that

o. British abused their power or
a. British ill-treated and humiliated Indians or
b. Indians started learning cricket or
c. An English girl fell in love with an Indian village boy (Aamir Khan) or
some other odd and weird reasons...

Also, you assume if Lagaan got the Oscar ONLY the Producer/Director would be happy!

I believe that the whole India would have been dancing in the street, including AR R, his family and all the other artists and crew!

So much is the hunger for international recognition!

Cheers.

 

[Yamaka]

"if the movies are well made, world distributors will take care to release them. it need not be big budgeted like crouching tiger with all its magic techniques. after all one of the biggest grossers was a movie made with hand camera was blair witch project."

K:

Very true...

...but Bollywood, Kollywood and Tollywood make nearly 400 movies a year... the most in the world...and how many got the attention of the "World Distributors"?

You be the judge!

Cheers.

p.s One Amritaraj Brothers who is a Producer/Distributor in Hollywood says the average cost of producing a "good" Hollywood movie is about U$50 millions!