Here is why Congratulations India is trending on Twitter today

As the 95th Academy Awards have come to an end, India has come out with not one but two impressive wins at the prestigious cinema awards. With two Oscars in the bag, it is perhaps not surprising that the phrase “Congratulations India” is currently trending on the social media platform Twitter.

From Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, including celebrities from the film fraternity and millions of fans, the outpouring of congratulations and celebrations has been immense.

 

Fans, celebrities, and politicians alike have been ecstatic about the win of RRR’s Naatu Naatu song in the team in winning the Best Original Song category as well as Kartiki Gonsalves and Guneet Monga’s Oscar win for The Elephant Whisperers in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category hasn’t been overlooked as well. With over 33,000 tweets using the hashtag CongratulationsIndia by 11:00 AM, India is celebrating a historic feat of bagging two awards at the prestigious ceremony.

India’s success at the Oscars comes four years after anyone from the country had won an award at the ceremony. At the 91st Academy Awards in 2019, Monga won the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category for the short film Period. End of Sentence. With her win today, Monga is one of only two Indians to have more than one Oscar statuette.

Despite India’s celebrated film culture, the country’s tally at the Oscars is lacklustre. A total of seven Indians won Oscars, apart from awards for Technical Achievement and Honorary awards. Three of the seven joined the list today, Gonsalves, MM Keeravani and Chandrabose.

Apart from Monga’s 2019 Oscar win, other previous Oscar winners include AR Rahman, who won two Oscars in 2009 in the Best Original Score and Best Original Song categories for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. Other winners include noted lyricist Gulzar, who also won in 2009 for Best Original Song along with Rahman for Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire, Resul Pookutty who won in the Best Sound Mixing category for the same movie in 2009, and costume designer and painter Bhanu Athaiya, who won in the Best Costume Design for her work on Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.

Only three Indian movies have ever been nominated for the Oscars, in the Best Foreign Language Film category. These three are Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay (1988) and Lagaan (2001). But, the win may hold the key to helping global audiences to celebrate and recognise Indian movies, filmmakers and songs like never before.

As Oscar-winning lyricist Keeravani had told Billboard, “I am looking forward to the world embracing more and more Indian songs, movies, stories and cultures. Not only from me but from my fellow musicians, directors and movie-makers in India.”