“Writing with Fire” could be first ever Indian film to bag an Oscar

The film on India’s only Dalit-women led news outlet has wowed the festival circuit. Can it score where Lagaan missed in 2002? It has already won 28   international   awards

A documentary of three Dalit women journalists covering news on their cellphones, ‘Writing with Fire’, in one of the most backward areas of India – Bundelhand district of Uttar Pradesh –has fired the imagination of the international community with an Oscar nomination,  an India Today report, says. 

Now it remains to be seen whether the documentary will clinch the coveted Oscar when the awards are announced and presented in March.

The documentary made by directors Riintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh recount  the triumph-against-all-odds the story of three  Dalit women – Suneeta, Shyamkali Devi and Meera Devi—  female reporters of newspaper Khabar Lahariya, 

It is India’s sole Dalit-women led news outlet that  report stories of gender and caste discriminisation.

Accolades for directors Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh began pouring in from January 2021 when their film won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival, including the audience award. 

The waves of appreciation  and applause have gone beyond Sundance, across innumerable festivals across the globe, including the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA). 

“Each screening was so emotionally powerful, there were tears and applause—the best ways to receive love from an audience,” wrote Thomas about the film’s reception at IDFA. 

Apart from the Oscar, Writing with Fire has also earned nominations from the Producer’s Guild of America and the International Documentary Association.

No film made by an Indian has won an Oscar yet. Satyajit Ray received the Honorary Academy Award while Oscar-winners Bhanu Athaiya (Gandhi) and A.R. Rahman, Gulzar and Resul Pookutty (Slumdog Millionaire) all worked on films set in India and about Indians, albeit they were international productions made by British directors. 

The documentary also tracks the publication’s transition from print to digital.

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