Reports: Akshay Kumar’s Mission Raniganj independently submitted for Oscars

Akshay Kumar’s Mission Raniganj may not have garnered big numbers at the box office but fans have appreciated it. The Akshay Kumar-starrer is based on a real-life incident where an engineer rescued 65 workers when a West Bengal coal minery got flooded. As per reports, the makers (Pooja Entertainment) have independently submitted the film for the Oscars.

Directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, the movie also stars Parineeti Chopra, Varun Badola, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Rajesh Sharma, and Virendra Saxena among others. Apart from the official selection, every country can send non-English films to the Academy for Oscars, subject to final selection.

As readers would know, the Film Federation of India announced Malayalam-language survival drama 2018, starring Tovino Thomas and directed by Jude Anthany Joseph, as the country’s official entry for the Oscars. The movie features an ensemble cast and is based on the floods that struck Kerala in 2018.

In the recent past, films such as Gully Boy, Last Film Show, Pebbles, and Jallikattu have been selected as India’s official Oscars entries.

Last year was particularly successful one for Indian cinema at the Oscars, with the Telugu-language epic RRR winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song, despite not being chosen to compete for the Best International Film award.

Only three Indian movies in history have scored nominations in the category Mother India, Salaam Bombay, and Lagaan. Two Indian documentary features – Writing with Fire and All that Breathes – have also scored nominations in the last two years, with The Elephant Whisperers winning in the Best Documentary Short category last year.