Oscar Buzz for Karan Johar & Shahrukh Khan’s “My Name Is Khan”?

Fancy seeing Shahrukh Khan, Karan Johar and Kajol at this year’s Oscars? It certainly is possible, now that “My Name is Khan” has found its way on the Reminder List of Productions Eligible for the 83rd Academy Awards.



Johar’s political romance, chronicling the impact of 9/11 on the Muslim community in the United States, rocked the overseas box office last February. With its name on the official list of eligibility, the film could easily lend itself to a number of nominations — not limited to Best Foreign Picture due to its distribution by global production house, FOX Star Entertainment.





“MNIK”, as it is popularly referred to, marked Johar’s fourth film as a director. He previously delivered the immensely successful “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (1998) and “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham” (2001), and while his third outing “Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna” (2006) could not match the popular prowess of its predecessors, many critics regarded the adultery-based drama as Johar’s best work. In addition to being Johar and Khan’s his fourth consecutive film together, MNIK also reunited the off-screen best friends with Kajol, who starred in Johar’s first two films but turned down the role in Kabhi Alvida… that would later go to Rani Mukherjee.



It was just under two years ago that “Slumdog Millionaire”, also under FOX, swept every award show in town. Moreover, the film won an astonishing eight of its 10 Oscar nods, including Best Picture and Best Director. Incidentally, it was Khan who presented Slumdog Millionaire alongside Freida Pinto at the Golden Globes that year.



Nonetheless, while it became the highest grossing Hindi film in overseas box office history, MNIK has lacked the widespread appeal that ended in Slumdog’s 2009 Oscar triumph. Reviews back home in India were largely favorable, but those from Hollywood’s top critics and the foreign press were mixed to positive, with some unable to identify with the inclusion of what they called “over-the-top Bollywood elements” in an otherwise serious plot.

The outcome notwithstanding, the mere presence of MNIK in a list of Oscar hopefuls should be enough to do any South Asian proud.