Shah Rukh Khan To Soumitra Chatterjee, Oscar Academy Invites 20 More Indians To Join

New Delhi: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has recently released a list of 928 new members across 59 countries, who have been invited to be part of the prestigious film body, on their official website. Just like last year, the list of invitees this year also includes several Indian personalities - 20, to be precise. According to the list, invitations have been sent out to stars such as Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Tabu and others. Shah Rukh has been identified as the star of Chennai Express and Devdas on the list while Madhuri Dixit's best recognised films, as mentioned by the Academy, include her latest Marathi film Bucket List and also Devdas. Slumdog Millionaire and Taal are the two films mentioned with Anil Kapoor's name. Victoria And Abdul's Ali Fazal also features on the list.

The veteran actors who find mention on the list include Naseeruddin Shah, Soumitra Chatterjee and Madhabi Mukherjee. Two filmmakers have also been invited to be part of the Oscar body - Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films and Guneet Monga, who has produced critically acclaimed films like The Lunchbox, the Gangs of Wasseypur series of movies, Masaan and That Girl In Yellow Boots. Designers Manish Malhotra and Dolly Ahluwalia have been invited to join in their capacity as costume designers.

The list of cinematographers finds mention of Anil Mehta, who worked in films like Secret Superstar, Rockstar, Highway and Beyond The Clouds. Debajit Changmai, who has worked in films like Court and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, along with Bishwadeep Chatterjee, who has films like Madras Cafe and 3 Idiots on his resume, finds mention on the list of sound designers. Subrata Chakraborty and Amit Ray feature on the list as the selected production designers while film editor Ballu Saluja, who has worked in movies like Dangal and Touring Talkies has also been sent an invite. Music composers Sneha Khanwalkar and Usha Khanna are also on the list.

Last year, Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan were invited to join the Academy in a list comprising 774 new invitees. Filmmakers Goutam Ghose and Buddhadeb Dasgupta were also on the list.

This year, the Academy announced the probable list of new members along with a graphic representation of what appears to be an attempt address the issue of gender equality - the percentage of female membership has increased from 28 to 31 over the last year with the new list holding 49 percent occupancy for the female invitees. This year's list also includes revered celebrities from the international circle - actresses Emilia Clarke and Mindy Kaling, rapper Kendrick Lamar and author J.K. Rowling are a few of them.