Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, Tabu and Naseeruddin Shah are among a record 928 new members invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as the body behind the Oscars looking to embrace diversity.
In an announcement, the Academy shared the new members will increase the diversity in a major way as 49 per cent of its invitees are female and 38 per cent are people of colour. Artistes from 59 countries have been invited as members. India features prominently in the list of the new invitees that also includes Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor and Ali Fazal.
Other Indian celebrities who have been invited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are:
Soumitra Chatterjee
Madhabi Mukherjee
Aditya Chopra
Guneet Monga
Anil Mehta
Dolly Ahluwalia
Manish Malhotra
Subrata Chakraborty
Amit Ray
Ballu Saluja
Usha Khanna
Sneha Khanwalkar
A R Rahman, Irrfan Khan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aamir Khan are already a part of the Academy as members.
The Academy has been actively working to introduce diversity in its voting to avoid a controversy like 2016 when the Oscars were dubbed “white” for failing to recognise talents of colour. The Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal in October last year further made changes in the narrative in Hollywood with women coming forward and demanding better representation through #MeToo and Time’s Up movements.
The Academy seems to have taken these changes into consideration by diversifying its membership.
Photo courtesy: www.indianexpress.com
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