Kiran Rao says the lens with which West views our cinema, is entirely different

MUMBAI: It has been over 112 years and counting for Indian cinema yet we haven’t yet won the Oscar for any of our features. While the hopes are high this time around with ‘Homebound’ as India’s official entry to the Academy Award, filmmaker Kiran Rao feels while the west may not have a conscious bias towards Indian films, the lens with which it views our cinema is quite different.

The filmmaker recently spoke with IANS celebrating the success of her directorial ‘Laapataa Ladies’ at Filmfare Awards where it won 13 titles.

When asked if there is a certain bias that the West holds towards India or our cinema in general, Kiran told IANS, “I don't know about a conscious bias. But I feel that for every country when they (the Academy) award a film, they look at it roughly through their own lens. And while there is an appreciation for Indian cinema, perhaps a lot of the time it just doesn't tick the boxes of many of the voters there. It's like almost trying to sort of convince people that they automatically may not gravitate to that kind of cinema”.