Actor Vidya Balan, film producers Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor will be joining the Oscar governing body, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences this year among 395 executive members.
While Vidya has been recognized for her films like ‘Tumhari Sulu’ and ‘Kahaani’, Ekta Kapoor, on the other hand, gained recognition for ‘Dream Girl’, ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai’ and more. Meanwhile, Shobha Kapoor has ‘Udta Punjab’ and ‘The Dirty Picture’ under her credit.
Other celebrities who will be joining Vidya, Ekta and Shobha are Oscar award winners Yuh-Jung Youn, Emerald Fennell and Florian Zeller. Other artists like Henry Golding, Vanessa Kirby, Robert Pattinson and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II also have been invited to join the league this year.
Recently, The Academy officially announced the names of their ‘Class of 2021’ and tweeted, “It’s time to announce our new members! Meet the Class of 2021. #WeAreTheAcademy”.
While the ‘Class of 2021’ includes 395 people, last year 819 executives made it to the prestigious list Including Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt, Hrithik Roshan, filmmaker Nishtha Jain, Amit Madheshiya, designer Neeta Lulla, casting director Nandhini Shrikent and more.
Talking about the limited number of executives this year, the Academy shared in a statement, “To enable steady future growth and to ensure the necessary infrastructure, staff resources and environment to support all Academy members, the number invited to membership was limited to roughly half that of recent years.”
Seemingly, the Academy is undergoing changes to highlight inclusivity and diversity in its voting body after criticism sparked over its biased Caucasian representation that allegedly affected the Oscars' voting process. Currently, the ‘Class of 2021’ consists of 46% women, 39 % different racial/ethnic communities and 53% international representation from 50 countries around the globe.
In the past, several Indian stars such as Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Salman Khan, filmmakers Goutam Ghose and Buddhadeb Dasgupta had also joined the Academy to vote in the Oscars.
.png?w=600)
