The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has made a record-breaking number of invites to new members last night. This year 928 artists and executives have been invited to join the prestigious Academy Awards body that helps choose the nominations for the Oscars film awards. A number of famous Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Ali Fazal, Tabu, Manish Malhotra and others have been invited to join the Academy. The diverse list included stars like Emilia Clarke, Mindy Kaling, Kendrick Lamar and JK Rowling.
Last year the Academy had sent out 774 invites and this year it has reached its highest record number till date. Since 2014, the Academy has been on a directive to include more members from different countries and colour to diversify its membership. The recent #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo campaigns criticized the body for its predominantly white male membership. In an effort to mitigate that, the body has now picked over 49 percent of women and 38 percent of people of colour, according to statistics provided by the organization. Academy plans to double the number of ethnic and women minorities by 2020.
RECOMMENDED READ: WATCH: SHAH RUKH KHAN COOKS YUMMY CHICKEN ON THE OCCASION OF EID
Other than the names mentioned above Secret Superstar cinematographer Anil Mehta along with Haider costume designer Dolly Ahluwalia and designer Subrata Chakraborty, veteran Bengali actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Madhabi Mukherjee, producer Guneet Monga and editor Ballu Saluja also feature on the new member’s list. Musicians Usha Khanna and Sneha Khanwalkar of Gangs of Wasseypur fame also have been chosen to represent India in the musicians' section.
Oscar winner AR Rahman, actor Irrfan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are already Academy members. The Academy Awards female membership will increase by 31 percent from 28 percent if all the 928 invitations are accepted. According to the statistics provided by the Academy the ethnic minority members will increase to 16 percent from 13 percent. This year the voting participants will also increase to about 9,300 people.
