'Writing With Fire' Co-Director Rintu Thomas Opens Up On Missing Out On The Oscar

Rintu Thomas, co-director of the Indian movie ‘Writing With Fire’ said that the nomination itself is the win. The film made up to the top five in the ‘Best Feature Documentary’ category at the 94th Academy Awards. 

The documentary, sees the rise of rural media collective ‘Khabar Lahariya’ run by Dalit women. It lost to the American movie ‘Summer Of Soul’ at the event. The award show that took place I Los Angeles was live broadcasted in India on Monday morning via Disney+Hotstar. 

The documentary directed by Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh was India’s sole entry in the 94th Academy Awards. Thomas said that representing India on the Oscars stage was and ‘extremely special’ experience. 

“Writing With Fire found a space as one of the five films from the world up for the Best Feature Documentary – we believe that the nomination itself is the win. Representing India at the Academy awards was extremely special,” commented Thomas. 

In her brief statement she also added, “As the first Indian feature documentary to be nominated, we are quite sure this has opened many doors for the Indian filmmaking community,” according to the Indian Express. Ascension, Attica and Flee were the other films in the category. 

Just last week, there was a controversy with ‘Writing With Fire’ when the Khabar Lahariya organisation, around which the film is based, claimed that the documentary was not accurate. 

Kavita Bundelkhandi, editor of Khabar Lahariya said told PTI that they were proud that a documentary was made on their achievements but wished it was a more rounded portrayal.

She added, “The documentary portrays our work inaccurately because it shows only a part of what we do, and shows that ours is only about one political party,”